
Class. 
Book. 



THE ORIGIN 



or 



THE LATE WAR : 



TRACED FROM THE BEGINNING OF -THE CONSTITUTION TO 
THE REVOLT OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



BY 



GEOEGE tuNT 




NEW YOEK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
18M. 



A/.; - / . 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1866, by 

D. APPLETON & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of New York. 



00]N^TENTS 



CHAPTEE I. 



Statement of the Question.— General Sentiment of the Country, in regard to Slavery, be- 
fore the War. — Condition of the Negroes in the North and in the South. — The Slaves 
of Jonathan Edwards. — The Declaration of Independence, and Mr. Jefferson''s Com- 
ment. — A Provision of the Constitution, and Votes of Northern Members of the 
Convention. — Alexander Ilamilton in "The Federalist" upon the Mixed Character of 
Slaves. — "Washington, in regard to a Fugitive Slave. — The Ordinance of 1787. — The 
Resolution of Congress in 1790. — Views of Southern Members at that Time. — Article 
X. of the Constitution. — Memorials to Congress for Abolition In the District of Co- 
lumbia. — J. Q. Adams on the Subject. — Virginia and other States early for Emanci- 
pation by Gradual Process, but set back by Abolition Movements in the North. 

Page 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Sectionalism. — The Right of Petition. — The District of Columbia,— The Missouri Com- 
promise.— State of Political Parties. — The Tariff Question. — " Aggression."— Mr. 
Jefferson, on the Missouri Question. — Admission of States before 1S20. — Territories 
Organized in Conformity with the Wishes of the Inhabitants. — State of Sentiment at 
the North. — Southern Youths in Northern Colleges. — Northern School-books. — Exag- 
gerated Descriptions of Slavery at the South, ..... 85 



CHAPTEE III. 

The former "Federalist" and "Republican" Parties. — Political Questions during Mr. 
Monroe's Administration, and that of Mr. Adams and General Jackson. — Certain 
Sources of Good Feeling between the Sections. — "West Indian Emancipation. — George 
Thompson. — Anti-Abolition Meeting in Boston. — John Henry. — Great Britain and 
the United States. — "Washington's Advice. — Mr. Roebuck's Speech at Sheffield, June 
10th, 1S65. — Progress of Abolition. — Views of President Jackson, Governor Marcy, 
Governor Everett, and Mr. Clay, .... . , 62 



IV CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

'Aggression " against the South in Active Operation at the North for Thirty Tears be- 
fore the "War.— Eesolutions of Congress, in 1836. — Action of the Legislature of Massa- 
chusetts upon the Eesolutions of Five Southern States. — Conflict in Congress, in re- 
gard to Abolition Memorials, in 1837. — Its Kesolution. — Kemarks of Mr. Benton upon 
the Result— The "Partisan Leader."— Mr. Van Buren.— The "31st Rule."— The 
Whig Party. — The Liberty Party. — The ShufBers among the Northern Democratic 
Leaders, .... .... Page 104 



CHAPTER V. 

The Political Canvass of 1840. — The Whig Party Success. — ^A Whig Governors Abolition 
Address to the Massachusetts Legislature, in 1844. — Revolutionary Resolutions of the 
same Legislatury their Presentation in Congress, and the Disposition made of them. 
— Resolutions of United States House of Representatives. — Appointment of a Massa- 
. chusetts Commissioner to Charleston, South Carolina, and his Reception.— Its Effect 
— The Expediency of the Measure considered. — Repeal of the " 21st Rule." — The 
Texas Question.— The State "of Parties.— Dissolution menaced by the Legislature of 
Massachusetts, in 1845, ........ 125 



CHAPTER VL 

The Whig Party and Democratic Party compete with each other for Liberty Party Votes. 
— "The Higher Law." — The "Slave Power."— The Uniformly Superior Physical 
Power of the North. — Mr. Cass and Mr. Seward in the Senate. — President Taylor. — 
Condition of Slavery. — National Greatness does not consist in the Extent of Popu- 
lation, or any mere Physical Causes, ...... 155 



CHAPTER VIL " 

State of Public Sentiment at the Close of the Tear 1849.- Californiaand New Mexico.— Mr. 
Webster's Speech of March 7th, 1850.— Trimming Politicians.— Sentimental Politicians. 
—The Church as a Political Engine.— M. Clay's Compromise Resolutions.— Petition for 
Dissolution of the Union.— Mr. Hale, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Chase vote to receive it- 
Washington's Farewell Address.— INIr. Calhoun's Resolutions.— Action of Southern 
Members of Congress.— Mr. Webster.— The Compromise Measures of 1850.— State 
Sovereignty.— The Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 and of 1850.— The Missouri Compro- 
mise abrogated by the Measures of 1850, ..... 178 



CHAPTER Vin. 

The Several Compromises in regard to Slavery.— Death of Mr. Calhoun.— Death of President 
Taylor.— The "Seward Whigs" and Mr. Webster's 7th of March Speech.— Political 
Calm after the Passage of the Measures of 1850.— The Conservative Interest strongly in 
the ascendant.— The Fugitive Slave Act and " Personal Liberty Bills."— Sectional Senti- 
ment and its Local Causes.— Coalition of 1851, between Democrats and Freesoilers in 
Massachusetts, to choose a Senator in place of Mr. Webster, and State Officers.— Rescues 
of Fugitive Slaves, and Rendition of them.— Mr. Choate.— Demoralizing Influence of 
the Coalition, .......... 209 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

National Politics. — Union Sentiment. — Mr. Fillmore's Administration.— The Democratic 
National Convention of 1852.— It adopts fully the Compromises of 1850.— The Wliig 
National Convention of that Tear does the same. — Resolutions of the Freesoil Conven- 
tion at Pittsburg, denouncing those Measures. — Insignificance of the latter Party, at 
that Period. — Action of the Whig Convention. — Availability, instead of Sound Policy.— 
Growing Conservatism of the Democracy. — The Native American Party. — How com- 
posed. — Its " National Council," in 1855, adopts the Compromises of 1850. — But its 
"Lodges" corrupted by admitting Political Freesoilers into Fellowship. — The 
"National Council," in 1856, changes Front.— Decay of Public Virtue. — The faithful 
of the old Whig Party.— Policy of the Democrats, . . . ' Page 236 

CHAPTER X. 

Administration of President Pierce. — Position of the Democratic Party. — President 
Pierce's Message to Congress in December, 1853. — " Domestic Controversies passing 
away." — The Civil War began in Kansas. — Statement of the Question In regard to 
Kansas. — Mr. Webster's Views of the Effect of the Compromise of 1850.— Mr. Clay's 
Opinion of the Impolicy of an Imaginary Line. — The Bill for the Organization of tho 
Territory passes the House, making no Mention of Compromise or Slavery, and is 
introduced into the Senate by Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on Territories, with- 
out amendment. — The Debate in the Senate chiefly in regard to the Bights of the 
Aborigines. — The Bill laid on the Table, for further Consideration of this Topic, and not 
taken up during the Session. — At the nest Session, Mr. Douglas introduces (January 
4th, 1854) an Amendment to the Bill, proposing the Specific Repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. — The largo Majority in favor of it. — Memorials to Congress, In opposi- 
tion to its Passage — one from three thousand and fifty Clergymen of Now England. — 
Eifect of this Clerical Movement upon the Public Mind. — Final Passage of tho Bill by 
the House. — Action of the North. — The " Emigrant Aid " Companies. — Secret Associa- 
tion of Members of Congress to resist the Objects of the Act. — Tho several Reports to 
Congress — Further Proceedings as to Kansas. — Opposite Opinions of Mr. Davis and 
Mr. Yancey. — Position of Mr. Douglas. — Extension of Slave Territory does not mean 
Increase of Slavery. — The reasons why the Adoption of tho Kansas-Nebraska Bill was 
unavoidable, .......... 209 

CHAPTER XI. 

Availability as the Motive of Nomination a Mistake of the Democracy in 1S5G, as it was of 
the Whig Party in 18.52. — Seditious Legislative Proceeding. — The Nomination of Fre- 
mont and Dayton the first Instance of Sectionalism, as to Candidates for the Pres- 
idency and Vice-Presidency. — Party Success, on merely available Grounds, insecure. — 
Southern Leaders seeking to inform themselves as to Northern Sentiment. — Visit of 
Mr. Davis to New England in 1858. — Mr. Toombs gives a Lecture in Boston. — Mr. 
Lincoln's Opinion of the State of Union Sentiment at the South, during the War. 310 

CHAPTER XII. 

Hostility to a fundamental Provision of Law led to the War.— Other Causes which 
concurred. — Mr. Webster's Expression — " A Bargain broken on one Side is broken on 
all Sides," in 1851, showing his Opinion of the State of Things at that Period.- The 
Book, called "The Impending Crisis of the South," recommended by Republican 
Members of Congress and others. — The " Harper's Ferry Invasion " . . 318 



Tl CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER ZIII. 

Want of Fidelity to the Constitution placed the Country in Circumstances tending to Open 
Eupture.— " Historicus."— The Necessity of Strict Adherence to Constitutional Pro- 
visions in a Republic.— The Danger still before the Country. — The South, in a Con- 
stitutional Point of View. — Ex-Governor Andrew before a Committee of the Senate. — 
The "People" did not bring about the War.— The Disunionists, in both Sections, to 
whom it was owing, few in Number. — Governor Banks willing " to let theUnion slide." 
—A State Flag.— A Revolutionary Relic— Mr. Quincy.— Red Republicans.— Mr. John 
P. Hale's Opinion of the Likelihood of Dissolution if Lincoln should not be elected. 

Page 332 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The several Party Conventions for the Nomination of President and Vice-President in the 
Spring of 1860 — the Democratic, the Constitutional Union, and the Republican. — The 
Doings of each stated, and those of the Democratic and Republican Parties particularly 
analyzed, .......... 84'2 

CHAPTER XV. 

What has been shown in this Volume. — A Declaration of Mr. Lincoln, in 1858. — The 
Prospects of the Canvass. — " Union-savers." — The Sentiment of the Army. — The Differ- 
ence between the Whigs and the Freesoil Party. — The Election. — How Resentment at 
the West, on account of alleged lU-Treatment of Mr. Douglas, favored the Election of 
Mr. Lincoln. — The Party of " Progress." — Young America, . . . 368 

CHAPTER XVL 

After the Election, the Country first awoke to the Situation. — The Conservatives had the 
decided Majority in the Senate, and the Control of the House. — The majority of the 
Republicans in the North opposed to all Violent Measures, besides the strong Demo- 
cratic and Conservative Strength in that Quarter.— The Majority at the South opposed 
to Secession. — Movements at the North to procure the Repeal of the " Personal 
Liberty Bills," by Ex-Chief-Justice Shaw, Mr. Curtis, lately Associate Justice of the 
United States Supreme Court, and others. — Public Meetings of Citizens. — Ridiculed 
by the Radical Journals. — Governor Andrew on the " Clean Hands " of Massachusetts. — 
The Concession required to save War really slight. — But the Radicals determined to 
force Matters to an Issue. — Mr. Wade, Senator from Ohio. — Mr. F. P. Blair in regard 
to Mr. Chase. — Opinion of Mr. Weed, late Editor of the Albany Journal. — Description 
of Disunionists, North and South, by Mr. Andrew Johnson, now President of the 
United States.— The New York Tribune. — General Scott, . . .380 

CHAPTER XVIL 

Not easy to define the precise Points upon which rested the Alternative of War or Peace, 
before South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Secession. — Friendly Feelings between 
the Majority of the People, North and South. — Mr. Beecher's Definition of the Cause. 
— After the Secession of South Carolina the Breach could have been easily repaired. — 
The Leaders of the " Geographical " Party the Obstacle. — The Question really not in the 
Hands of the People, who dreaded the Idea of War for the Sake of the Union, but of 
the Radical Party Managers. — The Mistake of the People in choosing such Men to 
OflSce, — It was in Contravention of the Purposes of the Constitution, . 390 



X 



CONTENTS. VII 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Mr. Buchanan's History of his Administration. — His embarrassing Position. — Unanimous 
Vote of Approbation by the Legislature of Massacliusetts. — Anxious Waiting for the 
Meeting of Congress. — A " John Brown " Incident in Boston. — Official Opinion upon 
" Coercion," of the Attorney-General of the United States. — Conciliatory Propositions 
in the Albany Journal, a leading Republican Paper in the Interest of Mr. Seward. — 
Upon Motion of Mr. Boteler, of Virginia, a Committee of One from each State (-33) 
appointed, to consider and report upon " the present Perilous Condition of the Coun 
try." — Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, moves in the Senate for a Committee of Thirteen.^ 
Proposition of Mr. Andi-ew Johnson in the Senate. — Speech of Mr. Wade, of Ohio. — 
He does not " so much blame the People of Ihe South." — Allusion to the Speech by 
Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, in the House. — Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, offers 
Kesolutions. — Extracts from Speeches of Mr. Andrew Johnson. — Great Number of 
Memorials in favor of the Crittenden Eesolutions. — Opinion of Mr. Pugh, Senator from 
Ohio, of the Popular Vote in their favor, had they been adopted by Congress. — The 
New York World (Eep.) on the Effect of "one Word that way " from Mr. Seward. — 
Strong Statement of Boston Daily Advertiser (Rep.) as to Popular Aversion to a War. 
— Changes of Feeling. — The New Tork Tribune against a " Reactionary Spirit " for 
Union. — Resolution of Mr. Clark, Senator from New Hampshire, to defeat the Critten- 
den Propositions. — Mr. Seward disappoints Public E.xpectation by his Vote. — His 
Speech. — Its Effect. — The " Conservative " Republican Journals become quasi radical. 
— Statement of Mr. Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts. — Mr. Sumner, Senator from 
Massachusetts, on " the Barbarism of Slavery." — The " Irrepressible Conflict." — Inter- 
position of Virginia. — The Appointment of Commissioners to the " Peace Conference." 
— Messrs. Shurz, Chandler, and Bingham. — Mr. Chase on this Subject. — The Spirit of 
the Radicals. — The Conference. — Its Proposition^, . . . Page 894 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Fair Basis of Settlement in the Propositions of the Peace Conference ; but they were 
carried only by bare Majorities. — The Crittenden Resolutions. — The Committee of 
Thirteen. — Mr. Toombs's Statement of its Spirit. — Mr. Douglas on the Resolutions. — Mr. 
Crittenden's Opinion of their Effect, had they been adopted. — Mr. Pugh and Mr. 
Douglas, as to the readiness of Mr. Davis and Mr. Toombs to accept them, if agreed 
to by the Republican Members. — Resolutions already rejected by the House, lost in 
the Senate, by a Majority of One, Mr. Seward not voting. — The two-thirds Vote 
necessary to give them Effect could not have been obtained, had all the Southern 
Senators been present. — Mr. Douglas's Statement that many of the Republican Leaders 
desired Dissolution aud War. — Mr. Everett's Letter, of February 2d, 1S61, to the 
"Union" Meeting at Faneuil Hall, in Opposition to "Coercion," and stating the Party 
Obstacles to Adjustment. — Certain Anti-Abolition Resolutions pass the House. — The 
Faint-heartedness of the Class of Republican Leaders, who were Union Men, but afraid 
of breaking up their Party, prevented the Settlement, .... 423 



CHAPTER XX. 

Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. — His Character. — The Grand Question at the Time how to 
avoid War. — Mr. Everett's Favorable PdSition to judge, and his Opinion. — Resolutions of 
a pacific Spirit pass the House by a two-thirds Vote too late, but not acted upon in tho 
Senate. — The Inaugural Address. — The Purpose only to maintain and defend the 
Union. — A Disavowal of any Intent to use Force. — The Policy temporizing and con- 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

ciliatory. — Interview with Delegates from the Virginia Assembly after the Attact on 
Fort Sumter ; still on the Defence.— Statement of the Purposes of Secession by the 
Commissioner from Mississippi to Maryland ; not the Object to dissolve the Union. — 
The Grand Naval Expedition, and the Assault on Fort Sumter. — Mr. Campbell, ex- 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and Mr. Seward. — Extract from Leading 
Journals, in Relation to the Affair of Fort Sumter. — The New York Herald. — The 
Charleston Courier. — The New York Tribune. — The Ilerald again. — Mr. Seward, 
no doubt, intended to fulfil his Engagement. — The Unhappy Results of the incongruous 
Composition of the Republican Party. — Despatch to the New York Herald. — The 
Eifect of " Pressure "....... Page 434 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Object of this Volume. — ^Except for Causes arising in the North, any Attempt at Secession 
in the South would have been impossible. — Two Important Questions remaining after 
the War. — The Speediest Restoration best for the Whole Country. — The Radical Policy. 
— The Emancipation Question. — An Illustration of Radical Policy from Spanish His- 
tory four hundred Years ago. — The End of the Republican Movement corresponds with 
its Beginning. — What would have been the Condition of the Country, if Emancipation 
had taken place when the Constitution was adopted. — The same Motive which led 
the Radical Managers to " precipitate " the War induces them to oppose Restoration. — 
The Question must soon be — " Whether we will have a reestablished Constitution and a 
true Union, or a Government of Laws and not of Men" , . . 452 



THE OBJECTS OF THE WOKK. 



Lsr writing this book, I have endeavored to trace, in a 
manner which I trust will be intelligible to the general reader, 
the interior course of the long controversy, sometimes active, 
and again much subdued, but never absolutely at rest, be- 
tween the North and the South. It was my purpose to make 
known whatever the facts of the case should of themselves 
indicate, without any regard to party interests or preposses- 
sions. As the negro was, at the beginning, more or less con- 
spicuously concerned in the question, and on considerations 
relating chiefly to the master rather than to the slave, either 
personally or morally ; so he is still left in an uncertain con- 
dition, after a war which has destroyed more than half a mill- 
ion of men who were fellow-citizens, and probably twice as 
many of those who were made the occasion of the contest. 
This contest also placed the free institutions of the coun- 
try in a state of peril still furnishing grounds of just appre- 
hension. I have discussed negro-slavery in its own special 
relations, and the future which apparently awaits the negro 
race itself in this country, without consciousness of any prej- 



X ESfTEODUCTION. 

udice, and only so far as those points were inevitably con- 
nected with the order of the narrative. If it should ajDi^ear 
that the antislavery agitation, leading to such terrible public 
and private evils, was actually factitious in its origin and 
character, so far as its positively efficient agents have pur- 
sued it, and was, in reality, the fruit of a struggle for political 
power, instead of a moral or philanthropical demonstration, 
a very grave question is thus presented for the consideration 
of the American people. For, whatever contentment they 
might feel at the result, in one view of the subject, they may 
not be so well satisfied with the demoralization of their civil 
fabric, in subserviency to merely factious motives and parti- 
san ends. If it should seem, indeed, to be a logical con- 
clusion that the doctrine of negro equality and negro suffrage 
should follow, even upon the present dejjlorable condition 
of the colored population — the question may thence arise, 
whether the premises themselves were well laid down which 
could lead to consequences so much out of the order of nature 
and practice. Certainly, whether the past can be repaired 
or not, the future ought to be taken care of, for the common 
welfare, by an intelligent people, conscious of their own dig- 
nity and responsibilities. Nor ought they to allow politicians, 
for personal or party purposes, to make extreme theories the 
means of future and unknown ills, upon an insincere hypoth- 
esis, vhich cannot endure the light of either philosophy or 
ex:jerience. 

In thus presenting a sketch of the progress of those causes 
which led to the Southern revolt, it will be seen that slavery, 
though made an occasion, was not, in reality, the cause of the 
war. Antislavery was of no serious consequence, and had 
no positive influence, until politicians, at a late period, seized 



ESTTEODUCTION. XI 

i;pon it as an instrument of agitation ; and they could not 
have done so to any mischievous effect, except for an alleged 
diversity of interests between the sections, involving the 
question of pohtical power. "Wise and patriotic citizens for 
a long time kept those interests at the proper balance, or the 
passions which were thus stimulated under just control. As 
those great men passed away, self-seeking and ambitious 
demagogues, the pest of republics, disturbed the equilibrium, 
and were able, at length, to plunge the country into that 
worst of all public calamities, civil war. The question of 
morals had as little as possible to do with the result. Phi- 
lanthrophy might have sighed^ and fanaticism have howled 
for centuries in vain, but for the hope of office and the desire 
of public plunder, on the part of men who were neither phi- 
lanthfopists nor fanatics. 

It is the misfortune of Republican institutions that many 
"who have paid little attention to matters of state policy, and 
some scarcely competent to understand it, must pass judg- 
ment upon men of superior ability and high attainments, who 
have made such topics the study of their lives. Hence, it 
has happened, in this turmoil of parties, that the latter 
have been too frequently set aside for inferior persons, 
and their better considered opinions disregarded, in favor of 
those of transient Congressmen, often incapable by nature, 
and sometimes disqualified for calm judgment by personal 
hcibits, and of Governors of States, who ought to have re- 
mained among the governed. 

The policy pursued might well be considered matchless 
in a certain direction, if, in opposition to those rights of the 
South, in which the interests of the North were equally con- 
cerned, and in repugnance to by far the most prevalent 



Xii INTEODUCTIOK. 

wishes of tlie North itself, and without regard to official en- 
gagements, repeatedly made, of the rej^resentative and ex- 
ecutive departments of the Government, the country was 
led along into an unnecessary and unnatural war. Es- 
pecially would this be the case, if, besides other conse- 
quences, the country has thus not only lessened mate- 
rially, but substantially cut off, for a time at least, its chief 
source of permanent prosperity; and that which made it 
unrivalled in this respect, and by which it was becoming 
more and more supereminent among the nations of the earth. 
And the singularity of this course of action would more 
strikingly appear, if, in doing, this, the policy had wrought- 
an irreparable injury, if not the absolute ruin of the unhappy 
race which it professed thus to serve ; in a word, if it has so 
crij^pled itself and made the object of its professed sympa- 
thies its victim, for a party end, and in derogation of every 
interest on every side, and of every dictate of reason and 
lesson of experience. 

Another object of this work has been to place in its true 
light the intelligent and patriotic conduct of conservative 
men of both the great parties, which took a leading part in 
the affairs of the country, until incidental causes deprived 
them of their due influence. The supposition that Northern 
gentlemen, who had no connection whatever with slavery, 
as an institution, no personal relations with it, as a matter 
of domestic economy, or of individual interest ; who were 
actuated in all the ordinary affairs of life by principles of 
justice and by sentiments of honor, humanity, and generos- 
ity, maintained their public positions simply in order to up- 
hold slavery for its own sake — is on the face of it too prepos- 
terous for the belief of any rational and candid mind. Their 



ESTTEODUCTION. XIU 

motive in reality was not merely to render justice to the 
South, but to see to the common safety of the whole body 
politic, as involved in maintaining the Constitution, which, 
if broken in an essential part, was no longer a safeguard in 
any of its provisions ; in observing fidelity, in respecting 
law, and in upholding freedom, civil and religious, according 
to the spirit of the Great Charter intended to perpetuate 
both. 

It will be observed that much prominence has been al- 
lowed to the State of Massachusetts, in the progress of the 
discussion. The fact is, that the course of national politics, 
in one of the principal Northern States, affords a sort of clew 
to its operation in them all. It would have been equally im- 
possible, with any regard to space, and useless, also, to give 
any thing like a detailed account of local politics in the sev- 
eral States. In addition, it may be remarked that Massachu- 
setts presents, perhaps, the most striking example among 
them all ; since no State has been more conspicuous in press- 
ing the claims of State rights from the earliest period. Who- 
ever may read the history of Massachusetts, since the forma- 
tion of the Union, as well as before that event, will scarcely 
fail to be convinced that no State has been at times more 
exclusive and sectional. Large numbers of its people have 
looked upon themselves rather as men of Massachusetts than 
as American citizens ; and their boast has been of their State 
quite as much as of their country. It is easy to see how, 
fi-om any excessive indulgence of this sentiment (and cer- 
tainly there has been much in the annals of Massachusetts 
to foster peculiar pride), consequences might floAV tending 
seriously to the prejudice of the general welfare. 

In order to show the relations of the present situation of 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

affairs to the fundamental priuciijles of the republic, it seemed 
necessary to devote considerable space to preliminary details. 
The preparation of this part of the work, especially, required 
much more research and labor than I had anticipated ; ren- 
dered oftentimes embarrassing by the absence of dates in 
not a few of the many authorities consulted, particularly in 
pamphlets. This defect I have endeavored to supply, and 
trust I have been able to bring within reasonable compass a 
great variety of facts otherwise to be sought for in many 
different sources. The work was not contemplated until 
after the close of the war, when the occasion seemed to pre- 
sent itself for a review of the national condition. The claim 
for this service demanded also its speedy accomplishment. 
So brief a period, therefore, has been allotted to the work, 
that, though I believe it will not be found liable to the charge 
of inaccuracy, yet I can only hope tliat I have performed a 
task which it seemed to me the duty of some one to under- 
take, in a manner which may, perhaps, serve in a degree 
to lighten the pains of the future historian. 

GEORGE LUNT. 

Boston, December 1th, 1865. 



ORIGIN OF THE lATE WAR 



CHAPTER I . 

Statement of the Question. — General Sentiment of the Country, in regard to Slavery, he- 
fore the "War. — Condition of the Negroes in the North and in the South. — The Slaves 
of Jonathan Edwards. — The Declaration of Independence, and Mr. Jefferson's Com- 
ment, — A Provision of the Constitution, and Votes of Northern Members of the 
Convention. — Alexander Hamilton in "The Federalist" upon the Mi.xed Character of 
Slaves.— Washington, in regard to a Fugitive Slave. — The Ordinance of 1787. — The 
Eesolution of Congress in 1790. — Views of Southern Members at that Time. — Article 
X. of the Constitution. — Memorials to Congress for Abolition in the District of Co- 
lumbia. — J. Q. Adams on the Subject. — Virginia and other States early for Emanci- 
pation by Gradual Process, but set back by Abolition Movements in the North. 

It has often been remarked that slavery was merely 
the occasion, not the cause, of the late civil war. This is 
true in the sense that slavery was but the incident, out of 
which grew questions of State rights, and the rights of Terri- 
tories seeking to become States, in their various relations 
and modifications. If it can be shown, however, that the 
war could not have taken place except for the passions ex- 
cited by opposition to negro slavery in the country, and in 
its defence, the proposition in question amounts to a distinc- 
tion without a difference. Slavery, in the popular sense, was 
the cause, just as property is the cause of robbery,* Right- 

' In a stricter sense the Constitution, which provides for representation 
and taxation, partly based on slave labor, and for the restoration of fugitive 
slaves, was the cause. Without those provisions, there could have been no civil 
war on this account. The point is stated by the Apostle : " For sin, taking 

occasion hy the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me What 

shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid. ' Rom. vii., Y, 11. 
1 



2 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

fully or wrongfully in the country at first, it was here under 
the protection of the law, and not subject to be taken away 
by violence, or by any insidious device of abstraction. The 
motive for the allegation springs from a desire to throw the 
blame for the tremendous conflict upon one section alone, and 
to excuse the other. The object is, to make it appear that 
the country would have remained at peace, had it not been 
for the ambitious instigators of rebellion at the South. 
Upon this ground, although the Southern chiefs are made 
directly resj^onsible for whatever mischief has befallen their 
domestic institution, the North dej)rives itself, at the same 
time, of the benefit of any argument derived from moral ob- 
ligation in respect to slavery. It thus seems that the latter 
would have consented to allow slavery to remain undisturbed 
in the South, but for the agitation of the question in that 
part of the country where it existed. According to this 
theory, therefore, those whose manifest interest and supposed 
personal security depended upon keeping the matter quiet, 
•voluntarily and causelessly made it a subject of dispute, 
which gathered additional vehemence until it terminated in 
open war. Reason, it is certain, does not always control the 
action of men, either in their public or private relations ; but 
it must be admitted that conduct like that imputed to the 
South is without examj)le in the history of nations. 

Beyond question, popular information on this whole sub- 
ject is indistinct and incomplete, both in the United States 
and in Europe. Its important bearings upon the future may 
render an eflbrt to aflbrd the public mind some light in 
regard to it both justifiable and valuable. Ordinarily, it is 
thought, the story of recent events cannot be written Avith 
entire regard to impartiality, nor a just estimate be formed 
of their results by contemporary judgments! On the other 
hand, not a little of the uncertainty of history is due to the 
want of contemporary narration. Much of the present vol- 
ume, however, will relate to a period some time past, and 
we have not yet reached absolute results. These, whether 
for good or ill, will depend very much upon the deductions 



SENTIMENT ABOUT SLAVEET BEFORE THE WAR, 6 

we make from the character of events already transacted : 
and to be of any real service, now is the time for the history 
of those events to be written. 

It was the sentiment of a large majority at the North, 
before the war began, that slavery, in itself considered, was 
neither right nor wrong. It was a question of policy and of 
law, not of morals. Probably, most would neither have 
desired to hold, nor to see any human being held in bondage, 
if freedom were consistent with his welfare. As it respected 
the negroes in this country, the whole question at the North 
turned upon that point ; but practically, it was one with 
which the people of the free States conceived they had 
nothing whatever to do. In parts of the country not' pecu- 
liarly fitted for the beneficial nse of negroes in that relation, 
their gradual liberation and removal to their native land was 
thought desirable. In other sections, better adapted to the 
laborious employment of black men than of white, and from 
which the North and the South alike derived advantage, it 
was held that the well-being of the colored race, equally with 
the common good, reqiiired the subjection of that race and 
its enforced labor. In no case, except where their numbers 
were so comparatively insignificant as to make it a matter of 
no real consequence, was it thought advisable that negroes 
should be admitted to any of the civil privileges of the white 
man. A diiFerent policy would seem useless, if not mis- 
chievous, to them as well as to their superiors, and degrading 
to the latter without being of any moral advantage to the 
formei'. The instance cannot be shown in the country of 
equal social station accorded to the blacks with the whites. 
It is a condition against which Nature itself rebels, and, being 
the strongest, conquers. In those States which have mani- 
fested the most earnest enthusiasm for liberating the slaves 
of their fellow-citizens, no disposition has been heretofore 
shown to place the black man upon any terms of actual 
equality with the white. 

This anomaly is especially marked in ]\Iassachusetts, at 
last the most forward of all the States in promoting tho 



4 OKIGm OF THE LATE WAR. 

cause of anti-slavery, although equality of civil and social 
rights logically follows from the acquisition of ffeedom. Yet, 
notwithstanding the absence of any statute forbidding it, no 
negro in that State has been ameniber of its Legislature,* has 
served upon the jury, or in the militia, or has been appoint- 
ed to any office beyond one of a menial grade. Hence, his 
social relations may be readily inferred. To prohibit a whole 
race from the ordinary pi'ivileges of freedom, in a free coun- 
try, is not to make them really free. In what is the condition 
of a pariah better than that of a slave ? To talk of the boon 
of liberty to a captive, freed from his shackles but turned out 
into a desert to perish, is a profanation of a sacred name. 
Yet such is and must be the practical operation of freedom 
to the negro in this country. In this contingency, he is 
brought into direct collision with the interests, the senti- 
ments, and the instincts of the more numerous and more 
powerful race, to which he was not at all exposed in his 
dependent condition. In the North, his kind has constantly 
dwindled, and, but for occasional accessions by immigration, 
would soon disappear like the original inhabitants of the 
soil. In the South, where the race has multiplied to such an 
extraordinary degree, while in the condition of slavery, the 
freedom conferred by the advance of our armies has brought 
them only misery and death. The same natural law which 
has prevailed at the North will exert similar force at the 
South, should a system of competition between the white 
man and the black take effect. The weaker will fade away 
before the stronger species. 

It is difficult to understand what consolation iiny honest 
and intelligent philanthropy can find in such a melanclioly 
reflection. Doubtless, there are those who will consider that 
a system of slavery, which in this country, after all, was, in 
general, a condition of mutual dependence between master 
and servant, borne with cheerfulness by the inferior, and ex- 
hibiting that surest sig"n of comfort, the vast increase of the 

' A negro was elected to a Town Committee in a place near Cape Cod 
withiii a few years. 



CONDITION OF THE NEGEOES. 5 

species, is poorly compensated by a scheme of cold and spec- 
ulative humanity, which can only end in the final destruction 
of a whole subordinate people. 

Indeed, philosophy Avould seem to teach us that, since the 
state of human affairs at best is by no means perfect, and 
since questions of political and social import are, and always 
have been, points of dispute, so serious a matter as the sud- 
den and enforced reorganization of a race could hardly be 
warrantable, except upon the clearest and most unquestion- 
able grounds of equitable claim. A mere experiment to this 
end could be hardly justified; especially if all former expe- 
rience in a similar direction tends to discountenance it. To 
impose upon an inferior and degraded race a new series of rights 
and attendant obligations, for the proper exercise of which it 
may be doubted if a steady course of training renders those 
long in the enjoyment of education and freedom any too well 
qualified, might look on the face of the project likely to j)rove 
only prejudicial to both jjarties. The right to institute such 
a change ought to result, at least, from the distinct complaint 
and demand of those chiefly interested. It need scarcely be 
said that here was nothing of the sort. The negi'oes were 
perfectly contented with their lot. In general, they were 
not only happy in their condition, but proud of it. Their 
hardships were such as are inherent in the state of those who 
labor at the will of others for their daily bread. On the 
other hand, they were nursed in sickness, and cared for in 
old age. If any individual among them displayed sujjerior 
abilities or qualities, he could easily obtain his freedom if he 
desired it. There were many free negroes in each of the 
slave States, and not a few who were prosperous in business, 
had acquired no inconsiderable possessions, and held persons 
of their own race as slaves. To the whole South, at least, 
the tender mercies which would disturb this state of things 
seemed cruel ; but their people chiefly resented any such in- 
terference, because it was unjust to them, as being in viola- 
tion of the laws of the land. 

The anti-slavery movement at the North was based upon 



b OKIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

a denial of the obligation of those laws. It was alleged by 
the advocates of the movement, that man could not rightfully 
hold property in man. Hence, they aimed from the first at 
the abrogation of the Constitution; or, in the alternative of 
failure in that object, at the dissolution of the Union, There 
was no concealment of either of those purposes. The right 
which they denied was one of very ancient standing in prac- 
tice. It never seems to have occurred to them, or, if it did, 
they soon learned to disregard the obligation, that this right 
is expressly recognized in the Moral Law. The injunction : 
" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's man-servant, nor his 
maid-servant," can no more cease to be binding, so long as 
that relation exists under the law of the land, than either of 
the other commandments of the Decalogue. A civil commu- 
nity may lawfully authorize a condition of bondage for a por- 
tion of its population which is unsuited for the exercise of 
civil rights, if the apparent well-being of the whole requires 
it. Under ordinary circumstances, and in a state of ad- 
vanced civilization, it is obvious that the public welfare de- 
mands no such condition to be maintained. Wherever such a 
system of bondage exists, however, although no citizen is under 
any obligation to hold either man-servant or maid-servant, ac- 
cording to the unquestionable Scriptural sense of those terms ; 
yet so long as one jot or one tittle of the Moral Law remains 
to be fulfilled, his neighbor cannot interfere with his legal 
rights without sin. And he who destroys his neighbor's 
property, or deprives him of it in any unlawful manner, 
though not appropriated to his own use, nevertheless covets 
it. He who burns another's dwelling, without intending 
theft, is equally guilty of arson with him who sets it on fire 
for the express purpose of plunder. 

The Abolitionists, indeed, declared that human slavery, 
so far as it had received Scrij)tural sanction, had only been 
permitted to former ages, for inscrutable reasons, just as po- 
lygamy was then allowed. The Republican Convention, 
which nominated candidates for the support of its party in 
1856, denounced slavery and polygamy together, as "twin 



OBJECTIONS TO THE SLAVE TRADE. 7 

relics of barbarism." Omitting all inquiry into the ft -.da- 
mental distinction between a social institution, which may 
have been beneficial and even unavoidable in certain stages 
of society, and a practice of merely individual imjDort, it 
may be remarked that polygamy can make no claim to di- 
vine warrant. On the contrary, the original sanction to the 
marriage of our first parents was : " And they tioain shall 
be one flesh." That same series of holy commandments, 
also, which forbids us to covet any thing that is our neigh- 
bor's, restricts our relation to the opposite sex within the sin- 
gular number, namely : " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
wifeP No distinction could be broader, therefore, than that 
drawn by Scri23ture between the condition of bondage which 
it allows, and under fitting circumstances protects, by the 
solemn injunction of the Divine Law, and a practice which 
it exi^licitly prohibited, from the period of the very origin 
of our species. 

Until the American Revolution of 1775, the attention of 
the world had scarcely been drawn to slavery or the slave 
trade. The reduction of Christians to a state of servile and 
cruel bondage by the Barbary powers was suffered to con- 
tinue until more than thirty years after .the war of the Rev- 
olution was ended. The traffic in negroes was profitable 
to European and American traders, and conscience slept. 
Slavery, in fact, had been an indiscriminate custom of the 
world, wherever convenient and remunerative, for nearly six 
thousand years. At a very early date, measures had been 
taken in certain of the Southern provinces of America, of 
which South Carolina, in 1760, was conspicuous, to prevent 
the introduction of negro slaves into those colonies. But 
their remonstrances were unheeded by the mother country. 
At the period of the war of the Revolution, slavery existed, 
nominally, in every one of the American colonies. So lately 
as 1759, the legal representatives of no less eminent a divine 
and moral philosopher than Jonathan Edwards, of Connecti- 
cut, transferred the title to two negroes, denominated " the 



8 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

proper goods of said Jonathan Edwards," for a valuable con- 
sideration, by a bill of sale.' 

At the settlement of the Constitution, however, slavery 
in most of the Northern States was the merest name. The 
colored pojiulation within their jurisdiction was inconsidera- 
ble, and the race was practically a burden rather than a 
help. Here and there relics of them remained upon the 
farms of the masters in whose service they were born. In 
towns where they were found in any numbers, their settle- 
ments had been pushed to the outskirts of the territory. 
The competition of white labor had driven them to take up 
with casual and hand-to-mouth occupations, generally of the 
very humblest character. They were waiters on convivial 

^ The following is the deed of conveyance of two negroes once owned by 
the great New England theologian : 

"Know all men by these presents that we, Timothy D wight, Jr., of North- 
ampton, and Timothy Edwards, of Stockbridge, both of the county of Hamp- 
shire, and the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, executors of 
the late will and testament of Sarah Edwards, late of Stockbridge, in the 
county aforesaid, deceased, who was executrix of the will and testament of 
Rev. Jonathan Edwards, late of Stockbridge aforesaid, deceased, for and in 
consideration of the sum of twenty-three pounds lawful money to us in hand 
paid by John Owen, of Simsbury, in the county of Hartford, and colony of 
Connecticut, in New England, the receipt whereof we hereby acknowledge, 
have sold, conveyed, and in open market dcUvered two negro slaves, viz. : the 
one a negro man named Joseph, the other a negro woman named Su, and is 
wife to the said Jo, which slaves were lately the proper goods of said Jonathan 
Edwards, deceased, and were by him bought of one Hezckiah Griswold, of 
Windsor ; and we, the said Timothy D wight, Jr., and Timothy Edwards, do 
covenant to and with the said John Owen, his heirs and assigns, that we have 
good right in ourselves to sell and convey the said negroes, Jo and Su, to him 
as above, and that he shall and may hold them as his own proper goods from 
and after the date hereof. 

" In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 4th 
day of August, in the 33d year of his Majesty's reign. Anno Dom. 1759. 

" T. DWIGHT, Jr. [l. s.] 
" TIMO. EDWARDS, [l. s.] 

" Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of us. 
"Ebenezer Hunt. 
"Seth Pomeroy." 



WHAT SUFFRAGE MEANS. 9 

occasions, boot-blacks, sellers of cakes and ale, on a small 
scale ; often wandering fiddlers, though sometimes, certainly, 
they followed more steady callings. They were, in some 
sense, the gypsies of the New World. They were, in fact, 
what they must ever be by the side of the white race, and 
when not engaged as a body in some regular occuj^ation for 
which they are especially suited, the outcasts of society. 
Yet they were tolerated without prejudice, and, in general, 
both pitied and petted by their superiors. For example, 
until the question between the white man and the negro 
assumed beai'ings of novel importance, at a much later date, 
the children of the latter attended the ordinary public schools, 
without thought of objection on the part of any one. Af- 
terwards it became a point of serious difiference. Indeed, a 
bright negro lad Avas then always a special favorite among 
his white school-mates. The relative condition of both was 
considered so settled that there could be no question on the 
subject ; and there was little room for prejudice, until as- 
sumptions were made for the one from which the nature and 
reason of the other revolted. 

Such was the domestic experience of the North in regard 
to an inferior race, which had avoAvedly been brought into 
the country from their own barbarous home, for the sake of 
the use to which they could be jDut by their superiors. It 
was certainly never imagined by the latter, at the period 
just referred to, that the time could ever come, when their 
descendants would contemplate the project of instituting a 
civil equality between the separate races, at the expense of 
all reason and experience, and in opposition to the plainly- 
written ordinances of Nature itself Yet such is, or ought 
to be, the aim and the result of abolition. 

The plan now proposed in certain influential quarters is, 
to confer the right of suffrage upon liberated negroes, lately 
slaves. Suffrage is the symbol and the instrument of self- 
government in a commonwealth. Self-government presup- 
poses the most perfect possible exercise of the intellectual 
and moral powers. The possibility of such intelligent and 
1* 



10 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

conscientious action must depend uj^on capacity, knowledge, 
and association ; that is, the inspiration of the j)ast, the pres- 
ent, and the future. If the distinction of color were the only- 
one between the white naan and the black, some of the ob- 
jections in the way of this notable project might be got over. 
But the color, resulting from positive constitutional differ- 
ences, is only the sign of those distinctions w^hich are them- 
selves radical and immutable. Indicated also by form, 
features, and manners, they consist of that diversity of apti- 
tudes, habits, and capacities, which have placed the white 
man at the top of the scale of human existence, and the black 
man at the bottom. The one has impressed the image of his 
being upon the ages. He has a liistory constituting the for- 
tunes of the world. The other, except in connection with 
his brethren of Caucasian origin, has none whatever. That 
the inferior being, in his low estate, is susceptible of im- 
provement, is indisputable ; and every thing about him 
Avhich may serve to that end ought to be fostered. But, to 
take this niau and brother by the hand, in order to lift him 
to a level which he is not by his proper vigor qualified to 
reach or to hold, can but prove a mere violent conflict with 
insuperable obstacles, in which the contestants must suffer 
much harm, and the object of their solicitude perish, w^ithout 
the chance of gaining any useful end. 

The relation between master and slave had practically, 
continued in every one of the American provinces, until the 
close of the Revolution in 1783. Immediately after that 
event, it was decided by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts 
that slavery had been, in fact, abolished in that State by the 
operation of its State Constitution, adopted in the year 1780. 
In all of the other original thirteen provinces north of Mason 
and Dixon's line, except Delaware (namely, ISTew Hampshire, 
Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and 
New York), legislative measures Avere taken, shortly after the 
Revolution, fo¥ either the immediate or gradual extinction 
of slavery. To these was added Vermont, upon its admis- 
sion to the Union in 1791. The sum total of the slaves in 



JEFFEKSON ON NOKTHEKN SLAVE-TKADEES. 11 

all these Noi-tliern States in 1790, was 49,240. Of these only 
3,88G were to be found in New England, then consisting of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island ; 
but inclusive of the territory of Maine and Vermont, before 
the admission of those States to the Union. The rest of the 
slaves in the States, amounting to 648,657, were distributed 
between Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina, and Georgia, except 8,887 in Delaware. It is manifest, 
therefore, where the direct interest in preserving slavery 
would be most felt at that period. It is well worthy of note 
here, however, that notwithstanding the emancipation meas- 
vires of the Northern legislative bodies, as it respected the 
States they then represented, no objection appears to have 
been taken, on the score of slavery, to the Constitution of 
the United States, when proposed to the Conventions of their 
several States. While on the one hand it is clear that the 
subject itself was fully on their minds, attested by their cor- 
respondent action, so far as they saw fit to deal with the 
matter, it is equally evident that they did not deem them- 
selves authorized to meddle with it outside of their several 
State jurisdictions. 

Mr. Jefferson, indeed, gave a reason for this reticence, 
imputing it to the indirect interest of the Northern maritime 
States, in the transportation of African slaves to the Southern 
States. In his original draft of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence he had inserted an article unqualifiedly reprobating 
the foreign slave trade, and urging the protection a-fforded 
to it by the King as one powerful motive in justification of 
the rebellion. He finally withdrew this clause from the doc- 
ument, and his reason, recorded by himself, appears in ex- 
planation of his conduct. After alluding to the disposition 
of some of the Southern States to keep up the slave trade, 
he continues : 

" Our Northern brethren, also, I believe, feU a little tender under those 
censures, for though their people have very few slaves themselves, yet they had 
been pretty considerable carriers of them to others." ' 

' Jefferson's Works, I., p. 15. 



12 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAB. 

The article of the Constitution which provides for the res- 
toration of fugitive servants to their masters could hardly 
have been considered a concession to any particular section, 
since slaves were then held in every State of the Union ex- 
cept Massachusetts, though insignificant in numbers at the 
North compared with those at the South, The rights of the 
smaller body of owners in one part of the covmtry were as 
clear as those of the more numerous class in the other. The 
actual question at that time was not in regard to the contin- 
uance of slavery, but how to make the apportionment of di- 
rect taxes and representation between the Northern and 
the Southern States. The solution of the difficulty was 
reached by compromise. It was agreed to consider the 
slaves as both persons and property, and that three-fifths of 
their number should be added to the enumeration of free 
persons in the apportionment. There was no other way of 
determining this point. By reckoning the slaves as mei'e 
property, the South would have lost largely in representa- 
tion ; by considering them persons only, the burden of taxa- 
tion would have fallen unequally upon the North. There 
can be no doubt that the j^ermission for the slave trade to 
continue twenty years longer entered into the final agree- 
ment as an important consideration.^ To show how this 
question was regarded in the several sections, it is only ne- 
cessary to cite the vote upon its determination by the Con- 
vention of 1787. The history of this matter is curious. The 
provision on this point, as finally inserted in the Constitu- 
tion, is as follows : 

" The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now 
existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress, 
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty 
may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each per- 
son." — Art. I, sec. 9." 

This provision was duly ratified, with the other clauses 
of the Constitution, by all the States in turn. It was not 

^ See remarks of Hamilton (Elliott's Debates) on the compromise between 
Northern navigation and the Fugitive Slave law. 



LIMITATI0IT3 OF THE SLAVE TKADE. 13 

tliat, however, which was originally proposed to the Conven- 
tion by the committee appointed to draft that instrument. 
This committee consisted of Messrs. Rutledge of South Caro- 
lina, Randolph of Virginia, Gorham of Massachusetts, Ells- 
worth of Connecticut, and Wilson of Pennsylvania. It will 
be observed that, of this committee of five, three members 
were from the Northern States. The following is the prop- 
osition submitted by them upon this point : 

" Xo tax or duty shall be laid l^y the Legislature [meaning Congress] on 
articles exported from any State ; nor on the migration or importation of such 
persons as tlje several States shall think proper to admit ; nor shall such mi- 
gration or importation be prohibited." 

This clause was subsequently referred to a special com- 
mittee, consisting of one member from each State repre- 
sented in the Convention. Mr. Livingston, of New Jersey, 
reported from this committee the following proposition, by 
way of substitute for the clause recommended by the com- 
mittee of five : ' 

" The migration or importation of such persons as the several States now 
existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Legislature 
[meaning Congress] prior to the year 1800 ; but a tax or duty may be imposed 
on such migration or importation at a rate not exceeding the average of the 
duties laid on imports." 

When this report came x;p for consideration, a motion 
was made to substitute the year " 1808 " for the year " 1800." 
This amendment passed in the afiirmative by the following 
vote, which deserves consideration : 

Yeas — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, North Car- 
olina, South Carolina, Georgia — Y. 

JJ'ats — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware — 4. 

The three New England States which were repi-esented 
in the Convention, therefore, voted for the extension of the 
slave trade to the longest proposed period. Rhode Island, 
the other New England State, was at that time largely en- 
gaged in the traflic, and hence what would have been the 
action of its delegates, had any been present from that State, 



14 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

may be inferred.* The proceedings of the Convention upon 
this clause are also interesting, as a manifestation of scruples 
about a word, by men who permitted and sanctioned the 
thing clearly signified by that word. The question had been 
before the Convention in the following shape : 

" The importation of slaves into such of the States as shall permit the 
same shall not be prohibited by the Legislature of the United States until the 
year 1808." 

This measure was lost in the vote taken upon it, which 
stood thus : 

Yeas — Connecticut, Virginia, Georgia — 3. 

Nats — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North 
Carolina, South Carolina — 6. 

The delegation of Maryland was divided. From this 
statement it will be seen that, while the Connecticut mem- 
bers thought it as Avell to have the name with the thing, and 
those of Virginia, who had stood out against the extension 
of the traffic, had no objection to calling things by their 
right names, South Carolina exhibited scruples uj^on this 
point. The matter was finally adjusted by agreeing to the 
circumlocutory language retained in the standing clause of 
the Constitution, in lieu of using the word " slaves ; " and 
the measure passed in the affirmative by the votes given be- 
low, the New England States assenting, and Virginia return- 
ing to its first position, namely : 

Yeas — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, North Car- 
olina, South Carolina, Georgia — 7. 

Nats — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia — 4. 

In fact, it must have appeared clear to the minds of t^^se 
sagacious gentlemen, that the rhetoi'ic, if not the argument, 
of the Declaration of Independence would remain a stand- 
ing protest against the word slaves, as applied to the subject 

' Rhode Island adopted the Constitutioii May 29, 1*790, nearly two years 
after the ratification of the Constitution by the number of States prescribed 
as requisite to the formation of the new Union. 



THE vmamiAN bill of eights, 15 

race, if introduced into the body of the Constitution. Un- 
der a multitude of circumstances, permitting the use of more 
passionate phraseology than could be employed in an instru- 
ment so solemn as that manifesto, they and their associates 
had been in the habit, during the struggle for independence, 
of denominating the contest a mighty effort to free them- 
selves and their compatriots from the burden of slavery. 
As a jubilant, poetical utterance of a period, "when the senti- 
ments and feelings of the revolutionary struggle were fresh 
in the popular heart, expressed it — 

" The British yoke, the Gallic chain, 
Were urged upon our necks in vain ; 
All haughty tyrants we disdain. 
And shout, ' Long live America ! ' " 

But the whole contemporaneous and subsequent action 
of our ancestors shows conclusively, that the negro race was 
never even thought of as coming within the somewhat broad 
compass of the elementary principle of the Declaration, 
namely, " that all men are created equal ; that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; 
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness." That Declaration was promulgated on the fourth 
day of July, 1776. But it was based in essential resj)ects 
upon the "Declaration of rights made by the Representa- 
tives of the good peojile of Virginia," unanimously adopted 
in Convention, June 12, 1776, more than three weeks earlier. 
Of the latter instrument the first article reads: 

" That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have cer- 
tain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they 
cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity ; namely, the enjoy- 
ment of Ufe and Uberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, 
and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." 

But at the very time that Bill of Rights Avas unanimously 
adopted by the Convention of Vii'ginia, the number of slaves 
held under the jurisdiction of Virginia amounted to not far 
from two hundred and fifty thousand.' The inference, there- 

' Slaves held in Virginia in 1790 293,427. 



16 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

fore, is inevitalsle, that negroes were not contemplated at 
all in the several declarations. But objection miglit well 
occur, under the circumstances, to the insertion of the term 
slave into the phraseology of the Constitution about to be 
submitted to the consideration of the several States ; as well 
those in which the slaves were few, and where the institution 
was evidently dying out, as those in which the negro popu 
lation was rapidly multiplying and slave labor was becoming 
more and more profitable. Undoubtedly, many persons of 
that day apprehended a certain political inconsistency be- 
tween the sentiments of liberty, vindicated by the freedom 
from foreign domination just achieved by the young republic 
about to be created, and a system of bondage maintained 
for any portion of its inhabitants. It is well known, also, 
that there were those Avho entertained vague ideas of the 
eventual abrogation of the system. These ideas took no 
practical turn, hoAvever, except as some benevolent master 
occasionally liberated his slaves by his final testament — 
always, in such case, making some suitable provision for 
their support when aged or helpless, and for their start in 
life when more able to secure their own maintenance. But, 
there was ikefact of the existence of the slaves themselves in 
large numbers, dependent and needing oversight, as well as 
bound to perform the labor required ; and, as time went by, 
the thought of liberating so vast a body as they had become, 
which seemed scarcely less than an abandonment of them 
to want and misery and crime, .passed also away, except 
as economical considerations began, at length, to have their 
influence in certain of the border slave States. 

In this connection the remark may be permitted, that the 
language of the Virginian Bill of Rights is much more philo- 
sophical, and in accordance with fact, than the correspondent 
phraseology of the Declaration of Independence. That all 
men in a state of nature, could such a state exist for a moment 
where even not more than two persons live side by side, are 
equally entitled to the personal rights defined by the Virginian 
Declaration, is indisputable. But the freest commonwealth 



CONDITION OF NEGROES, NOKTH AND SOUTH. 17 

n.eitlier is nor can be a state of nature. Under tlie most 
favorable circumstances it can only be alleged in the vaguest 
and most inconsequential sense that " all men are created 
equal." At their entrance into the world, all human beings 
are so far on a level, that they are uniformly incapable of 
exercising or enjoying any right for which they are not 
entirely dependent on the will of others. Upon quitting the 
world, the proudest king is stripped to the indiscriminate 
nakedness of the meanest beggar. Between the two condi- 
tions, society in its best estate can recognize no fixed law 
able to do more than to regulate, in some convenient and 
useful manner and measure, the infinite diversities and in- 
equalities of human life — its chances and changes, its capaci- 
ties and dispositions. And superior to all the decrees and 
oi'dinances of man, will forever stand the immutable laws of 
Nature, which he must implicitly obey, or suffer and make 
others sufler with him the consequences of resistance. 

It is also to be remarked, that, at the period of the Revo- 
lution, there was a generally more tender sentiment in regard 
to slavery and its subjects at the South, than at the North. 
Leading persons in the slave States, in Virginia esj)ecially, 
among whom were "Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, ex- 
pressed earnest hopes for the abrogation of the slave system, 
on both humane and political considerations. They saw that 
it had its evils, and they desired to remove all evils from the 
face of the country and the earth. Without proposing any 
specific remedy for this particular phase of mortal ill, those 
great men still hoped that a time would come, when white 
labor could be usefully substituted for that of the blacks, 
and the country could be relieved from an ostensible incon- 
sistency between the principles of its institu.tions and its 
practice, though one for which it was itself in no wise re- 
sponsible. But while in the North the negro was in a con- 
dition of unqualified degradation, whether he was nominally 
bond or free, his general state in the South was bettered by 
many alleviating circumstances. In the one case he had no 
relation whatever with the white population, except as a 



18 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

mere drudge, for often precarious hire. In the other, he and 
his progenitors had been the dependants of some one familj, 
oftentimes for several generations. Local associations, a 
congenial climate, and the bonds of interest and attachment, 
exerted at the South a prevailing influence over the mass of 
the colored population. Doubtless, there were exceptional 
cases of hardship, ill-usage, and sometimes of extreme ci'u- 
elty. It is certain that the majority of mankind are by no 
means qualified to exercise any great responsibility of con- 
trol over others, even when that control is limited and re- 
strained by law, as this soon came to be, by all reasonable 
requirements, in every Southern State. Even the instances 
of uniformly moderate and well-disposed monarchs have not 
been too common or j)raiseworthy upon the earth. 

But without instituting any comparison between the sev- 
eral sections, as to the oj^eration in each of the common at- 
tributes of humanity, and the motives of ordinary self-inter- 
est which afiect the actions of men more or less everywhere, 
the astonishing increase of the black population in the South, 
and the other familiar and favorable evidences of their con- 
dition, in a state of servitude, afford the surest reply to every 
allegation of general ill-treatment.^ And if the sui^erior 
race, under all the advantages which higher intelligence, 
better capacity for education, instinctive self-respect, tradi- 
tional memories, generous emulation, and mutual example 
should inspire, has hardly yet been seen to perfect the exper- 
iment of self-government into a tested and established fact — 
the inducement seems small to look for a happier result, by 
calling in a race of inferior capacities, sentiments, and possi- 
bilities of progress, to share in a task of such weighty duties 
and grave responsibilities. And if a resort to such degrada- 
tion should prove to be the sense of the American people, it 

^ This statement could be readily confirmed by a variety of impartial testi- 
mony. The travels of Sir Charles Lyell in this country may be referred to ; 
those of Miss Murray, one of the Queen's maids of honor, discharged upon the 
publication of her volume, it was alleged, for her views on this subject; and 
numerous other works of foreign writers. See Appendix I. 



FOUIi COMPROMISES. ^ 19 

may be safely asserted, that it will be found not in accord- 
ance witli the sense of Nature, which will refuse to obey it, 
and will break out in some other way. 

It has been asserted, that of four several compromises 
between the two sections of country, since the Revolutionary 
war, each has been kept by the South and violated by the 
North. These four are the settlement of the Constitution, 
that one specifically styled the Missouri Compromise, the 
adjustment of the nullification trouble with South Carolina 
and the States in concert with it, and the various legislative 
measures of the year 1850. Two of these compromises re- 
late to the subject of slavery ; the others have no direct con- 
cern with it. The settlement of the Constitution, for exam- 
ple, can scarcely be reckoned, in any sense, a compromise 
between those who held slaves and those who held none. 
Slavery existed at the formation of the Union in every State 
but one. Slavery was then universally held to be exckisively 
imder the control of State jurisdiction. The National Leg- 
islature was bound to afford the citizen of the South equal 
protection for his property in slaves, which it guaranteed to 
the citizen of the North, in regard to other kinds of prop- 
erty. Very little more than half a century before the Revo- 
lutionary war (1713), the twelve judges of England, Chief- 
Justice Holt, a venerable name, at the head of the list, had 
replied to a question of the Crown in council, in the follow- 
ing terms : 

" In pursuance of his Majesty's order in Council, hereunto annexed, we do 
humbly certify our opinion to be that negroes are merchandise." 

It has been already shown, without adverting more par- 
ticularly to the universal practice of New England, under 
the law, that an illustrious clergyman and philosopher of 
Connecticut held slaves which were sold for a valuable con- 
sideration so recently as 1*759. The actual view in which 
the slave was regarded by the provisions of the Constitution 
is determined by the language of Hamilton, in the Federal- 
ist (No. 54), as follows : 



20 . OEIGIN OF THE LATE "WAK. 

" The Federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on the 
case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixed character of persons and 
property." 

While this passage, therefore, and correspondeut expres- 
sions in the context of the article referred to, leave no stand- 
ing-ground for the fallacious assertion of certain conspicuous 
political philanthropists, to the effect that the Constitution 
does not recognize slavery, it indicates also the absence of 
any marked disagreement in the constitutional Convention 
in regard to slavery itself In fact, the frame of government 
did all it could in providing for *the return of fugitive slaves 
who had fled from one State into another, and refused to 
meddle with the rightful jurisdiction of the several States 
over a subject exclusively within the legislative control of 
each. If compromise there were, therefore, in relation to this 
general subject, it was simply one between the slaveholder 
and slave-trader ; that the runaway servants of the first 
should be returned to him, on the one hand, and that twenty 
years further should be allowed for pursuing the traflic, on 
the other. That the contract was observed in the latter 
respect is certain ; how faithfully the alternate obligation 
was I'egarded in the end, may in part appear as this inquiry 
proceeds. Indeed, at least one piece of evidence exists to 
show that in some parts of the country the people, at a very 
early period, were not well disposed toward this provision ; 
since Washington himself, in the latter part of his life, stated 
the difficulties which might attend the pursuit of a fugitive 
slave into Pennsylvania.' The law, however, was faithfully 
executed, in general, for the many years that fugitives were 
few, and until systematic efforts to entice the negro from his 

' In a pubUshed letter, dated Nov. 20, 1V86, addressed to Hon. William 
Drayton, one of whose slaves absented himself from his master on a journey 
and went to Mount Vernon. Washington sent him " under the care of a 
trusty overseer," on the way to Mr. Drayton, but he afterwards escaped. 
Washington writes : " The gentleman to whose care I sent him has promised 
every endeavor to apprehend him, but it is not easy to do this, when there are 
numbers who would rather facilitate the escape of slaves than apprehend them 
when runaways." 



THE OKDINANCE OF 1787. 21 

muster had become common enough to give a violent breach 
of the law the semblance, at least, of popular warrant and 
support. The other " compromises " specified will come up 
for consideration in their appropriate places. 

One other adjustment of this sort, however, demands 
particular attention at this point. This is the celebrated Ordi- 
nance of 1787, the provisions of which excluded slavery from 
the territory northwestward of the Ohio River, which had 
just been ceded by Virginia to the States under the old Con- 
federation, for the common benefit. The cession of this vast 
tract, comprehending more than two-thirds as much territory 
as was contained within the limits of the original thirteen 
States, was made by the Legislative Assembly of Virginia in 
the year 1783, in order to aid in the discharge of the public 
debt incurred by the war. The first of the two Ordinances 
proposed to the Congress on this subject was introduced in 
the following year by a committee of three, of which Mi*. 
Jefferson was chairman. This contained a clause prohibiting 
slavery after the year 1800 in the territory ceded, or in other 
territory to be ceded, the latter yet remaining under the 
jurisdiction of North Carolina and Georgia. The clause in 
question was stricken out, and the Ordinance, thus amended, 
passed. 

It is impossible not to perceive, upon examining Mr. 
Jefterson's plan, that it was intended to prepai-e the way for 
complete eventual emancipation ; for the line proposed by 
him began on the parallel of thirty-one degrees north lati- 
tude, and would have included tbe territory of the States 
now known as Alabama and Mississippi, but then claimed by 
Georgia, and have extended below the southern boundary of 
that State. The Ordinance of 1787, which took the place of 
the preceding, prohibited slavery only in the territory north- 
westward of the Ohio River; comprehending, therefore, only 
the immense tract ceded by Virginia, and including the tei'- 
ritory of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wis- 
consin, and a part of Minnesota. If the project, Avhich it 
may be supposed Avas entertained by Mr. Jeflerson and some 



22 OKIGDSr OF THE LATE WAK. 

Others, could have been carried out, the slave States would 
have been either encircled by a cordon of free States, or the 
question betTveen the two would have come to some issue at 
a much earlier period. Taking into consideration the natural 
features of the territory, or the larger part of it, not made 
subject to the proviso, and the actual course of events follow- 
ing its settlement, the probabilities are that the result would 
have been otherwise than that contemplated by its supporters. 
The question, it may be believed, would have been conclu- 
sively determined by experiment; so that by common consent, 
at an early period, the restriction would have been removed, 
as inconvenient and burdensome, from the southern portion 
of the territory in question. In such an event, the direful 
evils which have since befallen the country might have been 
averted. 

As it was, the Ordinance of 1787 passed the Congress of 
the Confederate States by a nearly unanimous vote. It seems 
not at all difficult to conceive of the motives which produced 
such general concurrence. The action of the Northern mem- 
bers is readily accounted for ; but the measure was an appar- 
ent Southern triumj^h, supposing sectional feeling could then 
have run high enough to warrant the exj)ression, as applied to 
patriotic men who had been so recently and victoriously de- 
voted to a grand common cause. The proviso did not affect 
the slaveholding section at all, since its operation was re- 
stricted to a part of the country in which experience had 
shown that slaves could not be held and em^jloyed to advan- 
tage. Besides, it is not unlikely that Southeim members 
may have thought, in view of rights then held to be ojDcn to 
no question whatever, that here was a concession, which, 
though barren, perhaps, of actual fruits to the othei-s interest- 
ed, yet involved a certain generous sacrifice to opinion, or 
to prejudice, on theii'own part. And Virginia, holding such 
supereminently important relations to the Confederate 
States, and which had just placed a gift so munificent and 
unexampled upon the altar of the common country, to re- 
lieve it from almost irretrievable burdens and embarrass- 



MOEAL EFFECT OF THE ORDINANCE. 23 

ments, may have imagined that she was thus laying a stable 
foundation for public gratitude and future security; and that 
her heart would never bleed by the strokes of shaft after 
shaft from the full quiver, which, for the mutual defence and 
welfare, she had herself so unhesitatingly bestowed. 

But making every acknowledgment of the honest and 
generous motives which undoubtedly prompted those who 
projected and those who assented to this procedure, it does 
not necessarily follow that the Ordinance itself was a judi- 
cious measure. Mr. Jefferson was a politician as well as 
a humane man. He was ambitious, and sensible that his 
desire could not be immediately gratified ; but it could hard- 
ly have failed to occur to him that conciliation of his North- 
ern fellow-citizens in a matter of sentiment, which is so much 
more influential with the populace than reason, might prove 
an important step towards his own political success. The 
Ordinance, as has been remarked, was futile as to any pres- 
ent practical result ; but it was the fruitful source of future 
evils. It was the first actual sectional measure which ob- 
tained legislative sanction in the country. It was an inci- 
dental blow at a great fact in the habitual practice of a large 
portion of the inhabitants of the country. It was an imputa- 
tion, having its moral and political bearings, against a do- 
mestic institution, in which the admitted rights and the sen- 
timents and feelings of a large proiDortion of the j^eople were 
involved. It was, in efiect, a virtual separation of one class of 
fellow-citizens from another, with which they did not agree in 
one essential respect. It was, in a Avord, the foundation of a 
sort of moral barrier between the North and the South, upon 
which it was easy to build some substantial and oficnsive 
work by and bye. When Washington, in his farewell ad- 
monition to his countrymen, warned them against the indul- 
gence of sectional prejudices, and even the use of language 
tending to promote anti-national feeling, he might well have 
had the well-intended, but surely " sectional " Ordinance of 
1787 in his mind.' In a word, if the eventual abolition of 

' It will be seen at a subsequent point in this volume that Mr. Clay, in 



24 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

slavery, a matter not within its iDi'ovince or its jjower, had 
been the purpose of the Congress, the instrument in question 
was well designed to render efficient aid in due time towards 
the fulfilment of that object. 

But if, on the other hand, slavery was viewed, according 
to the fact, simply as a State institution, absolutely within 
the power of each State to regulate and control, to preserve 
or to abrogate as it saw fit, then to exercise national legisla- 
tion upon it, in respect to the territory ceded by Virginia, 
out of which future States were avowedly to be formed, was 
an indirect attack upon the institution in States where it al- 
ready existed by law, and a direct interference with popular 
right and liberty. The seed of discord thus flung down, and 
deemed for the moment worthy of no further thought by either 
party, was sure to spring i^p finally in a harvest-field of fu- 
ture contention. And as it Avould have been in conformity 
with the well-understood, indeed, the manifest relations of 
the General Government to slavery, as a merely local institu- 
tion, so it would have been far more expedient to leave the 
question to be determined by the inhabitants of the teiTitory, 
guided by the light of reason and nature, whenever they 
should come to form their several State constitutions. The 
same end would then have been attained, without danger of 
future disagreement. In fact, the spirit which jorompted the 
passage of the Ordinance was soon afterwards made evident, 
by an attempt to induce Congress to take certain action in 
regard to the slave system within the States. This was set 
at rest, however, by a resolution passed in 1790, as follows: 

" Resolved, That Congress has no authority to interfere in the emancipation 
of slaves, or in the treatment of them witliin any of the States ; it remaining 
with the several States alone to provide any regulations therein ■which human- 
ity and true policy may require." 

This resolutfon was j^assed in consequence of the presen- 
tation of two petitions to Congress, both of them on the part 

1850, took substantially the same view of the general subject ; and Mr. Jeffer- 
son also, at an earlier period, as appears by various extracts from his writings, 
quoted in subsequent pages. 



DE. FEANKLIN AND THE CONSTITUTION. 25 

of certain citizens of Pennsylvania, in February, IVOO. The 
first of these was a memorial of Quakers, asking only for the 
abolition of the slave trade ; the other came from a body of 
persons calling themselves " The Pennsylvania Society for 
promoting the abolition of slavery, the relief of free negroes 
unlawfully held in bondage, and the improvement of the 
African race." The latter, singularly enough, was signed 
by Dr. Franklin, as President, and, presenting the objects 
comprehended within the title of the association, also specifi- 
cally requested of Congress that it would " step to the very 
verge of the power vested in you, for discouraging every 
species of trafiic in the persons of our fellow-men." 

If Dr. Franklin had reexamined, or reflected upon the 
provisions of the Constitution, which, shortly beforehand, he 
had taken so active a part in framing, he would have per- 
ceived that Congress had no authority whatever in any one 
of the premises contemplated by those memorials. The 
limit of the further continuance of the slave trade was fixed 
by that instrument, and could only be changed by a formal 
amendment of it. Congress could not move a hair's breadth 
towards " discouraging " it, tlierefore, either lawfully or lion- 
estly. The powers of Congress being defined and bounded 
by the frame of government, all it could do in regard to any 
specific subject was to act upon it, if within its province ; 
and if otherwise, " to touch not, taste not, handle not." He 
must also have understood, that the emancipation of the ne- 
groes was equally out of the range of national legislation. 
As a philosopher and man of science, he ought not to have 
countenanced vague experiments with forces, the elements 
and conditions of which forbade the possibility of success ; 
and this the more especially, if the agencies employed were 
of a disturbing, and not of a useful character. Besides, the 
moral obligation to abstain from interference was superemi- 
nent. That he and his associates were prompted by the 
most benevolent motives, there can be no doubt ; but, per- 
haps, nowhere so much as in benevolent movements is it re- 
quisite that zeal should be according to knowledge. Not- 
2 



26 ' OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE, 

"withstanding the spirit of patriotism and magnanimous con- 
cession, which so signally animated the Constitutional Con- 
vention, all its members must have been aware that the sub- 
ject of slavery, if offensively introduced into it, would have 
been a fatally disturbing element. They must have been 
equally conscious that there was quite as much implied as 
expressed, in the general understanding reached in relation 
uO it. It might also have seemed obvious, that honor and 
good faith, of superior obligation to any merely philan- 
thropic emotions, demanded strict avoidance of indu-ect in- 
terference with a system, which it had been thought j^rudent 
to leave unassailed by direct means, and which was so left, 
as being an indispensable condition of the original bargain. 

Of the light in which these memorials wei-e viewed, it is 
easy to judge by the temperate, yet jDointed, expressions of 
certain of the members of Congress, in the debate which 
took place. One Southern gentleman objected to the com- 
mitment of the memorials, as containing " unconstitutional 
requests," and remarked that he feared the commitment 
would be a very alarming circumstance to the Southern 
States ; for, if it was to engage Congress in an unconstitu- 
tional measure, it would be considered an interference with 
their rights, making " them uneasy under the Govern}ne7it, 
and causing them to Imiient that they had ever put additional 
potoer into its hatids;^'' that is, by exchanging the former 
Confederation for the Union under the Constitution. Another 
member declared that " the States tcoidd never have entered 
into the Confederacy^ unless their property had been guaran- 
teed to them ; " and that " we look upon this measure as an 
attack upon the palladium of our property " — meaning the 
Constitution, Another leading member showed, in the clear- 
est manner, by his remarks, upon what sentiments he relied 
for the future security of himself and those similarly situa- 
ted. He said " he lived in a State which had the misfortune 
of having in her bosom a great number of slaves ; he held 
many of them himself, and was as much interested in the 
business as any man. If he was to hold them in eternal bond- 



ABOLITION BEGAN EST PENISTSYLYANIA. 27 

age^ he would feci no uneasiness on account of present men- 
ace, because Ae would rely iipori the virtue of Congress^ that 
they xoould not exercise any nnconstitiitional authority P 

The result of this first attempt to obtain legislative ac- 
tion in regard to slavery, was the passage of the resolution 
of Congi-ess, already cited, disavowing any authority in 
Congress to interfere with slavery, and declaring that all 
poAver in relation to it rested with the several States. Within 
three years, therefore, after the adoption of the Constitution, 
we obtain this definite exposition of the limitations of its 
powers, in this respect, from the most competent source. 

It thus appears that the anti-slavery movement began, at 
so early a period, at the North, that is, in Pennsylvania, a 
State which had instituted a system of gradual emancipation 
for the slaves within its own territory, in 1780, not finally 
ojierating with full efiect, however, until more than fifty 
years afterwards. The Anti-Slavery Society, of which Dr. 
Franklin was President, appears to have been formed at 
about the close of the Revolutionary War. All petitions as 
to this subject, for many succeeding years, seem to have 
sprung from Pennsylvania, instigated, it is to be presumed, 
by the same sect, irreverently styled by Mr, Carlyle " anar- 
chic Quakers." 

The impression made upon the Southern members of Con- 
gress by the movement, at the earliest period, is also signifi- 
cant. Although evidently considering it of no practical 
importance, at the moment, they yet clearly made it known 
that they regarded such action as in violation of the Consti- 
tution, and that without the guaranty for their rights of 
proi:)erty in slaves, permitted by that instrument, the 
States which they represented would not have assented to 
it, and hence the plan for the Union must have failed. N"o 
one can doubt, that if they had deemed the gviaranty afforded 
insufficient, they could have obtained pledges of a still more 
precise character, either then or at a later period, since the 
object of the Union was one of paramount interest to all. 
But neither they nor their Northern compatriots entertained 



28 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAK. 

any question of the fidelity of their successors to engage- 
ments so solemnly undertaken, both expressed and implied. 

It is of vital importance, in considering the subsequent 
political history of the country, to bear in mind this contem- 
poraneous exposition of the powers of the General Govern- 
ment, and of the rights of the/States. It recognized a fact, 
in law, which, by right, admitted of no dispute. It estab- 
lished a piiuciple of inherent and inestimable virtue, in 
reference to the future well-being of our political system. It 
determined the point that the system should be republican 
in reality, as well as in profession, instead of a practical des- 
potism nnder the shadowy guise of a republican name. The 
original Confederation had been nothing more than a league 
between sovereign and independent States, for their mutual 
protection and welfixre. The Constitution created a General 
Government — legislative, executive, and judicial — conferring 
upon it certain powers which could not be exercised con- 
veniently and wisely, by the States in Congress, under their 
earlier compact. Those powers were defined and restricted 
by the terms of the frame of government, and all which were 
not expressly granted by that instrument remained with the 
several States, under their separate constitutions and laws, 
in all their original vigor and extent. The object of the 
Union was the more effectual administration of the common 
interest. The design of the Constitution was to protect the 
people, the source of power, against the Government, that is, 
the agents of the people, to whom that power was periodically 
intrusted ; so that the written record should be a continual 
protest against every possible assumption of arbitrary au- 
thority. 

The Southern States, in becoming members of the Union, 
no more yielded, therefore, any control over their domestic in- 
stitution, than the Northern States granted power to the Gen- 
eral Government to regulate the almshouses within their 
several jurisdictions. To prevent all misapprehension, how- 
ever, on the part of those who either were ignorant of the pur- 
pose of the Constitution, or who disregarded its provisions, the 



MASSACHUSETTS AND THE CONSTITUTION. 29 

resolution of 1790, already cited, declared a principle, which, 
in its general ai^plication, must have been well understood 
throughout the country ; for, without that reservation of their 
original rights to the States, contained in the ameudraents to 
the Constitution (Art. X.),' the struggle which ensued, upon 
the proffer of that instrument to the acceptance of the States, 
would have ended in its rejection. 

The introduction of that article was the turning-point 
with the Convention of Massachusetts, which had previously 
given decided indications of a majority averse to the proposed 
Union ; and this principle, no matter what might be its spe- 
cific application, in one section of the country or another, was 
of as vital value to the North as to the South. For it restrained 
the exercise of centi'al authority within specific limits, and, 
by opposing diverse local barriers to arbitrary encroachments 
upon public liberty, it maintained the spirit and the form of 
po^nilar independence. The question was not of the personal 
bondage of the blacks, but of the political freedom of white 
men. The former was an existing fact, and imcontrollable, 
except at the option of those with whom were the legal right 
and the special concern. The other was a point in which the 
masters of slaves, and those who declined to assume any such 
mastery, had an equal interest as citizens. The one was not 
Avithin the purview of the constitutional problem at all, except 
as an incident of the relations of the individual slaveholder, 
not of his State, to the system of government. But, by the 
deteraiination of the other, the individual citizen remained a 
republican and a freeman. He was thus personally divested 
of no one of his existing social or political rights, while the 
congregated freemen of the several States recognized a gov- 
ernment representative of themselves, collectively and sever- 
ally, as citizens both of the national and local system. To 
the authority of the latter they had been long accustomed, 

' " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, arc reserved to the States respectively, or to 
the people." 



30 . OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

and it enjoyed the popular approbation. They made the 
former also answerable to the sovereign will of the people ; 
granting it powers necessary to its own action, but not in 
conflict with any which were necessary to the administration 
of the appropriate State authority. 

In short, it was this clause alone which would prevent a 
political party in office, and able to find a pretext for the 
assemblage of a sufficient military force, from converting its 
power into a perpetual usurpation, upon that jDretext, or any 
other invented for the occasion. When such an event takes 
place, public liberty is at an end. Every movement towards 
interference with the rights reserved to either State was a 
step in the line of such a catastrophe. Every such move- 
ment each and all the States were profoundly interested to 
check and to avert. Hence, the fundamental objection to 
any anti-slavery organization, because revolutionary in its 
tendency, and which, Avhen used for political purjDoses, be- 
comes such in action. In striking at the rights of slave- 
holders, it violates equally, in principle, those of citizens who 
are not slaveholders, and endangers the whole civil system 
by undermining the basis of all constitutional security. 

It was not, therefore, because they were slaveholders — 
the mere accident of their condition — but in regard to their 
capacity as citizens and freemen, that the most enlightened 
and liberal statesmen of the country have refused, from the 
beginning of the government, to engage in a moral or politi- 
cal crusade against the inhabitants of the South, The strug- 
gle to effiect the emancipation of the negro was a violent 
breach of the guaranty afforded to the master by the Consti- 
tution. If that charter was broken in regard to one section, it 
could have no vital force to secure protection to another. 
The defence -of the Constitution in every particular, there- 
fore, was the common cause of all who desired to uphold the 
Government in its integrity ; and until a comparatively recent 
period, this was a cause which actively engaged the general 
public sympathy. Under the old articles of " Confederation 
and Pej-petual Union," agreed upon July 9th, 1778, the first 



THE KENDITION OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. 31 

section, after that declaring the name of the Confederacy, is 
the following : 

" Art. II. — Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, 
and evQry power, jurisdiction, and riglit which is not by this confedtration ex- 
pressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." 

No similar provision was contained in the Constitution 
agreed upon by the General Convention of the several States ; 
but the article already cited, and well deserving frequent 
repetition, was proposed by Congress among other amend- 
ments, and was made part of the Constitution when that was 
adopted by the several State Conventions or Legislatures, 
as folloAvs : 

" Art. X. — The powers not delegated to the United States by the Consti- 
tution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respect- 
ively, or to the people." 

Upon the main point under consideration, therefore, there 
could exist no legal doubt. Slavery itself was purely an 
affair of State jurisdiction, over which the nation had no pre- 
tence of control. The rendition of fugitive slaves was, on 
the other hand, a matter of national obligation, for the dis- 
charge of which Congress made such provision as was 
deemed adequate for the purpose. In this view the whole 
nation acquiesced^ with the exception of here and there an 
" anarchic " philanthropist ; and the magistrates in every 
State continued for many years to administer the statute of 
rendition, in the comparatively few cases which came before 
them. This quiet state of things continued undisturbed until 
mobs, encouraged by State legislation, had begun to set 
aside constitutional obligations ; and men wdio excused their 
fanaticism, under the pretext of a higher law, of Avhich they 
conceived, than the actual laws of their country, which were 
to be seen and read of all men, secretly enticed such negroes 
as they could reach to flight, and surreptitiously conveyed 
them to some secure asylum. 

Indeed, the general question of slavery appears scarcely 
to have been introduced into Congress earlier than the year 



32 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

1836. Memorials had been occasionally presented to one or 
other branch of that body, during the interval between IVOO 
and the latter period. But they had uniformly confined their 
requests either to the abolition of the African slave trade, or 
of that carried on between the States ; or, at a later date, to its 
exclusion from the territories ; taking the latter turn, after a 
convention of the inhabitants of Indiana, part of the tract 
included within the Ordinance of 1787, had petitioned Con- 
gress for the suppression of that restriction in regard to its 
own domain, as yet in the condition of a territory. 

As early as 1827, a memorial was offered in favor of the 
gradual abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, all 
consideration of whicli was refused in the House by a large 
majority. In 1831, Mr. Jolin Quincy Adams presented a 
number of petitions of a similar tenor from inhabitants of 
Pennsylvania. But he declared that he deemed it his duty to 
say that he would not support the prayer of the memoralists ; 
saying, also, that he hoped the subject would not be dis- 
cussed in the House, and that whatever might be his opinion 
of slavery in general, or of slavery in the District, yet, " the 
most salutary medicine, unduly administered, was the most 
deadly poison." 

The committee to which these petitions were referred 
was discharged from fiirther consideration of the subject at 
its request. In thus presenting a jDetition, with the object 
of which he did not agree, Mr. Adams evinced opinions on 
that point, which he so signally vindicated in 1844, and 
which had previously guided the conduct of liis illustrious 
predecessor, Fisher Ames. ^ In I792,that gentleman had of- 

' The occasion which brings the names of these distinguished persons to- 
gether recalls the high tribute paid by the one to the extraordinary powers of 
the other. Mr. Adams had had the good fortune to listen to the great orators 
of the British Parliament at its most brilliant period — to Burke and Pitt and 
Sheridan and Fox — indeed to the speeches of the ablest men of the day in 
Europe and at home ; and he pronounced the opinion: "There could be no 
doubt of it ; of all that he had ever heard, Mr, Ames's speech on the British 
Treaty was surely the most eloquent." 



SODTHEEN MEMBERS OF CONGEESS. 33 

fered a memorial from a Pennsylvania fellow-citizen, " one 
of the people called Quakers," in relation to the African slave 
trade, and looking to an improved treatment of slaves in the 
United States. Upon some objection taken to his action, 
Mr. Ames, defending the general right of every citizen to 
petition Congress, stated that he had no idea of supporting 
the prayer of the petition ; but had made up his mind long 
since that it was inexpedient to interfere with the subject. 
In this case, by order of the House, the petition was returned 
to its author. 

It was evidently the earnest desire of the Southern mem- 
bers from tlie first moment, to keep this sixbject out of Con- 
gress. Whatever seemed like tampering with their settled 
rights under the Constitution, was manifestly unjust, and would 
naturally provoke resentment. Naturally enough, too, they 
would regard in this light any of those side issues, occasion- 
ally introduced, which might have a tendency to affect un- 
favorably their domestic institutions. Their jealousy on thia 
point was likely to become much more active, when they 
found, after the lapse of a fcAV years, that slavery had be- 
come strictly confined to their own portion of the country ; 
and that, in consequence of it, they occupied a somewhat 
anomalous jDOsition in the eyes of the civilized world. 
Doubtless, all men similarly situated would resist every 
seeming encroachment upon their own position ; and none the 
less so, if they perceived themselves subjected to moral impu- 
tations for the exercise of a right to which the whole country 
had assented, and which it had solemnly pledged itself to 
uphold. 

So little, however, had slavery become a political ques- 
tion, and so certain is it that the Southern States had not at 
an early period become banded together in support of the 
system, that [after the years 1820-21, during which that 
great struggle which resulted in what is called the Missouri 
Compromise was most active and came to its conclusion, the 
States of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee were earnestly 
engaged in practical movements for the gradual emancipa- 

9# 



34 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

tion of their slaves. This movement contimied until it was 
arrested by the aggressions of the abolitionists upon their 
voluntary action. This action was prompted by economical, 
rather than moral reasons. The abolitionists, however, re- 
fused to accept an impending fact, and insisted upon con- 
victing as criminals those who were so well dis^DOsed to 
bring about the very result at which they themselves pro- 
fessed to aim. The consequences were such as miglit have 
been reasonably expected. Promised emancipation refused 
to submit itself to hateful abolition. Those three border 
States placed themselves at once upon the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky resolutions of 1V98, and, resenting as an insult the in- 
terference of the Northern intruders, abandoned the scheme 
which a calm view of considerations, tending to their own 
future welfare, had induced them to form. 



CHAPTER II. 

Sectionalism.— The Eiglit of Petition.— The District of Columbia.— The Missouri Com- 
promise. — State of Political Parties. — The Tariif Question. — " Agrgression." — Mr. 
Jefferson, on the Missouri Question. — Admission of States before 1820. — Territories 
Organized in Conformity with the Wishes of the Inhabitants. — State of Sentiment at 
the North. — Southern Youths in Northern Colleges. — Northern School-books. — Exag- 
gerated Descriptions of Slavery at the South. 

The lamentable spirit of sectionalism, leading, finally, to 
such disastrous consequences, at first distinctly revealed it- 
self in the presentation of successive petitions to Congress 
for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
These memorials continued to pour into both Houses from 
the North, session after session, for a series of years, and 
gave rise to a great deal of heart-burning among the South- 
ern members, until the matter culminated in a scene of un- 
paralleled excitement in the Representative Hall, in the year 
1837. The comparatively slight consideration which at first 
they received, in either branch of Congress, was given almost 
entirely to the question of receiving them at all. Sometimes 
they had been sent back to the petitioners ; or the commit- 
tees to which, on other occasions, they were referred, had 
asked to be discharged from further attention to them ; or 
else a brief rej)ort or resolution had been adopted, expressive 
of an entirely adverse view to that of the prayer. Precluded 
^y absolute constitutional limitations, which were supported 
by the general sense and sentiment of the people, from at- 
tacking slavery in the States, the uneasy spirits who assumed 
to be legislators for the nation, at home, devoted themselves 
assidhously to the manufacture of petitions, in reference to the 
internal i3olicy of the seat of government. It probably never 



36 oEiGEsr or the late wak. 

occurred to them that those upon the spot, in the discharge 
of their legislative duties, raight be better qualified to judge 
about such a jooint than the men, and often the women and 
children, of remote country towns. 

But the absence of knowledge and experience is not al- 
ways a check to jiresumption. It is said that "the hand 
which could not build a hovel may destroy a temj^le;" and 
if the structure reared by our great forefathers were fated to 
topple over, nothing was so likely as this continual picking 
from below to be the primary cause of its destruction. The 
question of the treatment due to those petitions, and that 
which involved the powers of Congress touching the topic 
urged upon it by them, were both matters of no little nicety. 
The right of petition, under every well-administered govern- 
ment, should be theoretically unlimited, and yet practically 
subject to all reasonable control in special cases. Such a 
case is that, in which the public authorities, are as well in- 
formed upon the subject, and are presumably as well dis- 
posed to do all which can reasonably be done, in the prem- 
ises, as their constituents. The extreme value of tlie right 
of petition exists under governments in wliich the source of 
power is liable to be kept ignorant of the wrongs of the sub- 
ject.' In a republic, the popular voice is paramount, and 
the remedy for every wrong is in the public hands, at the 
stated seasons appointed for the expression of the popular 
will. It seems almost a solecism for-the sovereign people to 
complain that their servants dej)rive them of the right of 
petition.* 

^ Frederick 11. of Prussia, for instance, received such petitions into his 
own hands. 

' In the Legislature of Massachusetts, some twenty years ago, a gentleman 
happened to be on a standing committee to which had been referred a petitioi^ 
for the dissolution of the Union. A time and place of hearing were appoint- 
ed, whereupon this member of the committee declined to attend in bis place. 
The worthy chairman remonstrated against such contumacy, urging the sacred 
right of petition, and the duty of hearing what might be said upon every sub- 
ject proposed. This gentleman requested to be infoi-med, in reply, if the 
chairman would grant a sitting in case, for example, of a petition for a rail- 



THE DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. 37 

As to the authority of Congress over the District, it Avas 
legally exclusive. It often happeus, however, that certain 
moral considerations, going to show intention, give the actual 
color to law. The public, for example, may acquire a right 
of way over a parcel of land, which the owner has neglected 
to seclude to his special use, for a certain number of years. 
The public title would be the more free from any question, 
if the mansion of the proprietor were close at hand, so that, 
being conveniently situated, he seemed purposely to avoid 
seizing upon any opportunity of objection. In the year 1 790, 
Congress formally accepted the cession, previously made by 
Virginia and Maryland, of the tract, ten miles square, consti- 
tuting the District. It included the city of Alexandria, and 
slaver}' existed there, and in other jjarts of the territory. No 
provision was made in regard to slavery on this tract intend- 
ed for the peculiar uses of the Government, and for its seat ; 
nor Avas any memorial received by Congress for the emanci- 
jDation of the slaves in the Di-strict, until more than forty 
years after Virginia and Maryland had relinquished title to 
it. It must be admitted that, being exclusively under the 
legislative control of Congress, the power existed to abolish 
slavery Avithin the District. The right to do so, whether 
legal or equitable, may be thought much more questionable. 
Power, emj^loyed by a representative body, except under the 
specific requirements of law, is always i^resumed to be equit- 
ably, exerted. In this instance, there was the original ac- 
ceptance of the territory ^yith. slaA^ery existing upon it, and 
long acquiescence in the claims of the inhabitants,' without 
any question raised in regard to it. New interests connected 
Avith the domestic system had groAvn up there, extending into 
CA'ery one of the slave States. By implication, certainly, here 
Avcre long established rights, Avith which it Avould be injuri- 

road to the moon. The head of the committee thought he would ; where- 
upon the member suggested that such indulgence might be a waste of time, 
and that in the case in hand it was so clearly out of the power of the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts to dissolve the Union, and contrary to its duty to coun- 
tenance such a treasonable project, that he should stay away. 



38 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. " 

Otis, at least, if not illegal as well as inequitable, to interfere. 
It was evident, also, that of all mortals on the face of the 
earth, the colored population of Washington was the most 
easy-going, and, so far as such a population can be, the most 
comfortable in its condition. All conijilaints and petitions 
for their benefit came from persons at a distance, who, as 
the eyes of members of Congress daily testified to them, were 
profoundly ignorant of every fact essential to the rightful 
exjjression of either judgment or feeling upon the subject. 

Long before this matter came to a point, however, the 
severe and protracted struggle upon the question of admit- 
ting Missouri into the Union had taken place. That State 
Avas foi'med out of part of the territory of the Louisiana pur- 
chase. Louisiana was made a State in the year 1812, with- 
out objection on the score of slavery. Earnest opi^osition to 
its reception was indeed ofiered, in which Mr. Quincy, of Mas- 
sachusetts, took a conspicuous part ; but this was based upon a 
denial of constitutional authority to create new States out 
of territory not originally within the limits of the United 
States. In the whole of the ancient territory of Louisiana, 
slavery had been fixed from the time of its settlement. That 
part of it out of which it was proposed to create the new 
State of Missouri occupied the same relations to the United 
States, which the entire domain did as soon as Louisiana was 
admitted. There was now the advantage, however, that no 
question of constitutional authority remained. That point 
had been already passed upon, wrongfully as many thought, 
yet so determined inevitably, in obedience to the require- 
ments of the case. 

It is interesting, at this time, to notice those limitations, 
by which many of the Northern members of Congress, in 
1811, conceived that the General Government was hedged 
in. Several propositions, conformable to the views of Mr. 
Quincy, just referred to, received considerable support in the 
Senate. One of them demanded that the consent of each of 
the State Legislatures be obtained, before the act admitting 
Louisiana should be held valid. Another asked that a con- 



THE MISSOTJEI COMPKOMISE. 39 

stitutional amendment, as a preliminary condition, should be 
first procured, to empower Congress to admit uew States 
formed of territory outside of the original boundaries of the 
Union. Both the Senators of JMassachusetts voted for these 
motions, as did the other New England members, with the 
exception of one from Rhode Island, and another from Ver- 
mont. And this condition of mind is the more worthy, of 
remark, because the party which held such State nght views 
of the relations between the Union and the several States, 
under various phases, at that earlier period, made no objec- 
tion to any stretch of power by the officers of the General 
Government, at a later date, if exerted against their jioliti- 
cal opponents, though aflfecting directly the property and 
lives of fellow-citizens. 

The controversy which arose upon the application of the 
inhabitants of the Missouri territory, to be received into the 
Union, began in December, 1818, and continued with various 
fortunes, until the final determination of the question in Feb- 
ruary, 1821. In February, 1819, the bill reported by the 
committee, for the admission of Missouri " on an equal foot- 
ing with the original States," having come up for considera- 
tion, an amendment was submitted by a member of the 
House from New York, providing against the further intro- 
duction of slavery, and for the freedom of all children of 
slaves born in the State after its admission ; but allowing the 
latter to be held to service until the age of twenty-five years. 
This amendment was acted upon by separate clauses, and 
the first clause w^as adopted by a vote of 87 against 76, and 
the second by a vote of 82 against 78. All of the majority 
were Northern representatives, but ten members from North- 
ern States voted with the minority. In the Senate, the 
amendment was stricken, out, and no agreement having been 
reached by the two branches during that session, the bill was 
lost. 

In the mean time, a memorial from the people of Maine, 
asking to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing 
with the original States, had been presented in the House, 



40 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

* 

and a bill in conformity witli the prayer of the petition was 
passed (January, 1820) and sent to the Senate. The com- 
mittee of tliat body, to which it was referred, reported in 
favor of the bill, coupling with it amendments, which pro- 
vided for the admission of Missouri also, but containing no 
clause in regard to slavery. To this position the Senate ad- 
hered, but the House refused to agree. 

At length, after much counter-voting, from session to ses- 
sion, and correspondent debate, a committee of conference 
was appointed in the Senate, February 28, 1820, and on the 
next day a similar committee on the part of the House. By 
the recommendation of this joint committee, the bill for the 
admission of Maine was discharged from those amendments 
added to it by the Senate, which provided for the admission 
of Missouri ; so that now the bill stood upon its own footing, 
and was separately acted upon. The committee at the same 
time recommended a bill to authorize the people of Missouri 
to form a constitiition and State government, striking out 
the clause which prohibited slavery within the State to be 
thus formed, but excluding slavery from " all that territory 
ceded by France to the United States, under the name of 
Louisiana, which lies north of 36° 30' north latitude, not in- 
cluded within the limits of the State of Missouri." The vote 
was first taken in the House, on striking out the clause which 
prohibited slavery in Missouri, and was decided in the af- 
firmative by — yeas, 90 ; nays, 87. On this question, fourteen 
members from the Northern States voted with the majority. 
The main question was taken upon concurrence with the 
Senate, in the provision which inhibited slavery in the rest 
of the territory, north of 36° 30' north latitude, and the vote 
showed — yeas, 134 ; nays, 42, 

It may be useful briefly to analyze and compare the votes 
of the two Houses on this important subject, U2)on finally 
adopting the clause which prohibited slavery in territories 
north of latitude 36° 30', the count in the Senate had been 
34 in the aflirmative, to 10 in the negative. From the slave 
States there were 14 votes in the majority ui:)on this question, 



VOTES m CONGRESS NOT YET SECTIONAL. 41 

» 

aud 8 in the minority. The question then was upon the 
adoption of the bill before the Senate. This bill provided 
for the admission of Maine, and contained certain amend- 
ments providing also for the admission of Missoui'i. It ex- 
cluded slavery from all of the Louisiana territory north of 
36° 30', except that part included within the limits of Mis- 
souri. The bill was agreed to by the vote of — yeas, 24 ; 
nays, 5o. Of the members from slave States Avho thus 
voted, there were 20 in the affirmative, to 2 in the negative. 
In the House, upon the chief question, which was the prohi- 
bition of slavery in the Louisiana territory lying north of 
36° 30' north latitude, the vote of members from the slave 
States stood — yeas, 39; nays, 37. Of the nine votes of 
South Carolina, it may not be irrelevant to remark, five were 
given in the affirmative. The bill, as finally passed, was ap- 
proved March 6, 1820. 

Intense excitement was stirred up in the country, during 
the long protracted and warm discussion of this question in 
Congress. In the mean time, the matter had been debated in 
the Legislatures of the Northern States, many of which had 
passed resolutions and sent them to Congress, in opposition 
to the admission of Missouri as a slave State, It is plain, 
however, that, whatever deductions may be justly drawn 
from the votes of the majority of Northern members of Con- 
gress, who rej)resented, doubtless, the supposed tendency of 
opinion among their constituents, the question of promoting 
what has more lately been called " the slave power " had not 
assumed any sectional aspect in the South. A majority of 
Southern Senators and RejDresentatives had voted, on the re- 
cent occasion, to extend the terms of the Ordinance of 1787 
to the territory west of the Mississi23pi. To be sure, they 
- insisted upon receiving Missouri into the Union with slavery ; 
but it was already slave territory, and to refuse the request 
of its inhabitants would be to deprive them of their jarop- 
erty and accustomed rights. As to that part of the territory, 
to which the prohibition was in fact applied, it was as yet 
only the haunt of the savage and the habitation of doleful 



42 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

« 

creatures. But it comprehended Kansas and Nebraska ; and 
the line of 36° 30' north latitude, ran along the southern 
boundary of the former immense tract, which became the 
occasion and the scene of a struggle so fierce and prolific of 
results, after the lapse of another generation. 

The dispute in regard to Missouri, hoAvever, was not 
ended by the passage of the act empowering the territory to 
form a constitution and State government. A new cause of 
disagreement sprang up, when the frame of government 
adoj)ted by the territorial convention was presented for the 
approval of Congress, preparatory to the transformation of 
the territory into a State. That constitution contained a 
clause, requiring the future legislature to forbid, by law, the 
immigration of free persons of color into Missouri. In view 
of this " restriction," as it was called, the contest of preced- 
ing years was renewed, and raged with increased animation. 
It Avould be tedious to recapitulate the several steps by 
which the final result was reached. Of the temper of the two 
Houses, some judgment may be formed from the fact, that 
Mr. Clay, then a member of the lower branch, and subse- 
quently chairman of the House Committee of Conference, 
felt it necessary, as matters a]3proached a crisis, " earnestly 
to invoke a spirit of harmony and concession." In the same 
spirit, Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, also of the committee, on 
the part of the Senate, when the question was on the eve of 
a vote in that body, urged " the expediency of harmony and 
concession on this momentous subject." 

On the 26th of February, 1821, Mr. Clay, from the joint 
committee, reported a joint resolution, which was adopted 
by both Houses, and by virtue of which the admission of 
Missouri into the Union was consummated. The resolution 
provided that the restrictive clause, which had been the oc- 
casion of so much heat, should never be so construed as to 
authorize the passage of any law, nor should any law be 
passed, by which a citizen of any other State should be ex- 
cluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and im- 
munities to which he would be entitled under the Constitu- 



THE COMPKOMISE OF 1820. 43 

• 

tion of the United States. In this resolution, no reference 
■was made to the act of March 6, 1820, which coupled the 
exclusion of slavery from the Louisiana terrirory, north of 
36° 30' north latitude, with the permission to the peojile to 
form a constitution retaining slavery within the limits of the 
proposed State. Of the legal effect of this omission, it is 
not, perhaps, worth while, at this late day, particularly to 
inquire. 

At all events, the act of March, 1820, did, in fact, nullify 
its own spirit and general purjaort, by its provision against 
slavery in tliQ lohole of the Louisiana purchase, north of the 
line of 36° 30', while, at the same time, it admitted Missouri 
as a State, which was a part of the Louisiana purchase, 
lying north of that line. " In principle and in substance," 
therefore, it established a rule, equitably applicable, at least, 
to all the territory of the Louisiana purchase on the same 
line of latitude with Missouri ; a rule afterwards applied to 
Utah, and still more reasonably applicable to Kansas, lying 
between Misscairi'and Utah. Above that region, as in the 
case of Iowa and Minnesota, and the Avide extent of coun- 
try, including Nebraska and the Paciiic territories, in the far 
West, slavery was already excluded without human legisla- 
tion, by the inexorable laws of Nature. The principle of the 
lines of demarcation, therefore, was completely violated, and 
its effect made null- and void, by the A^ery terms both of the 
act of 1820 and the resolution of 1821. Yet, it can scarcely 
be doubted, upon a candid examination of the whole sub- 
ject, that Missouri, a part of the great Louisiana territory, 
was as fairly entitled to admission into the Union in 1821, 
retaining slavery if its inhabitants so willed it, as had been 
Louisiana itself to be received as a slave State, in 1812, or as 
Iowa, in 1846, without slavery, for which it was unsuited, 
and which did not exist within its jurisdiction. 

Thus was finally compromised this first grand controversy, 
under the settlement of which the country at large had rest 
for many succeeding years. The analysis of votes in Con- 
gress, already given, shows conclusively that the contest had 



44: OEIGrN" OF THE LATE WAK. 

not been carriecl on peculiarly with reference to slavery itself, 
as an existing institution. It was, nevertheless, a struggle 
on the part of the North to impose restrictions upon that 
enlargement of political power, which, it feared, the South 
might gain by increasing the number of States allied to it in 
interest and sympathy. The fact of its own superiority in 
strength was disregarded, and the certainty that this advan. 
tage would Improve with time, was unforeseen. It was the 
earliest open demonstration of organized jealousy to this end, 
which was manifested in the National Legislature. 

The condition of political parties, which had just enjoyed 
" an era of good feehng," at the period of Mr. Monroe's ad- 
ministration, happily tended to control this sectional spirit 
at the time; but it was, in reality, by no means of recent 
origin. On the contrary, after the close of Washington's 
administration, the state of party feeling between the two 
sections had been quite as much embittered as at any later 
period, though scarcely ever approaching the verge of the 
disastrous crisis more recently exi^erienced. At that early 
date, the Federal party was the most powerful at the North, 
especially in New England, and the Republican party at the 
South. The Constitution, mainly by the influence of the 
former party, was formed as nearly as was consistent with a 
republican system of government, on the princij)les*of that 
of Great Britain ; while the latter party, under the lead of 
Mr. Jefierson, inclined more to the political doctrines then 
popular in France. The absolute personal, as well as civil 
equality of all men, was the new republican theory ; and 
acc'ordingly, citizen This or That looked with little favor 
upon those at a distance, who held even black human beings 
subject to their own will. Having washed the outside of 
their platters, they peeped into the windows of their neigh- 
bors, to see if the table-furniture within was in an equally un- 
exceptional condition. Their outcries against an alleged na- 
tional sin and shame, Avhich they had committed and endured 
themselves with entire complacency, so long as they remained 
in a colonial condition, seemed more like objurgations against 



FEDEKALIST3 AND EAELT EEPUBLICAN3. 45 

foreign enemies, than appeals to fellow-citizens. Indeed, 
their language was sometimes as. fierce and uncharitable as 
that of the most ardent modern converts, lay and clerical, to 
the ultraisms of abolition, which, when less popular, they 
had denounced with such ready zeal.' 

It would be apart from the object of this work to discuss 
the various sources of disagreement between the Federal and 
Republican parties. The fundamental cause appears to have 
been the alleged inclination of the former to establish mon- 
archical institutions in the country, and of the latter to imi- 
tate the example of France, by the introduction of jjopular 
elements, to excess, into the administration of i^ublic aflairs. 
Neither accusation was, in fact, just ; and in commenting 
upon the condition of parties, it is necessary to remember 
that they are seldom or never homogeneous. Moderate men 
will generally be mingled, on both sides, with those who are 
disposed to carry measures to exti'emes. But it is only under 
very extraordinary circumstances that tlie chiefs of any great 
party, and then only when those unworthy, of eminent posi- 
tion have obtained it, become so intolerant as to sacrifice the 
principles and sentiments which become them as men, to the 
demands of reckless and malignant faction. There can be no 
question, that both the Federalists and the Republicans of 
that early period, were actuated, in general, by the most 
patriotic motives and considerations. The control of the 
Government by the former, ceased with the close of the admin- 
istration of the elder Adams. IsTor did they, or their succes- 
sors, continually organized under a variety of party designa- 
tions, and exel'ting great public influence, regain their lost 
preeminence, after the accession of Mr. Je|rerson to the Pres- 
idency, in 1800, until that of General Harrison, in 1840, and 
then only for a very brief period. 

The various public measures leading eventually to the 
War of 1812 with Great Britain were extremely distasteful 
to the Federal party, and particularly to its members in New 
England. Those measures had been adopted by the Demo- 

' Pee Ormsbv's " History of tlio Whig Partv." 



46 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

cratic administrations of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, both 
of tliem Virginians ; were supported by leading statesmen of 
the South, and inflamed the prejudices of tlie North against 
that section. The great party, which had acted a predomi- 
nant part in laying the foundation of the Government, and 
had controlled it during the administrations of its first and 
its second President, had now been deprived of this authority 
for a period of tv^enty years.- It would be not unlikely, there- 
fore, to seize upon any plausible pretext for the recovery of 
its power. Measures for this purpose might seem to it just, 
which it would liave rejected nnder different circunistances ; 
and, although it cannot be alleged that the opposition to the 
Missouri Compromise was confined to the Federal party, yet 
that party was chiefly resj^onsible for it. 

Unhappily, it assumed a sectional, instead of a party 
aspect ; not literally, as has been shown by analysis of some 
of the ballots upon the subject, but in effect. The state of 
sentiment in the extreme North is indicated by the vote of 
New England, upon the question of striking out the clause 
which prohibited slavery in Missouri. It stood in the House 
— yeas, 7 ; nays, 33. It has also been seen, that upon the 
correlative question, of inhibiting slavery in the territory 
north of 36° 30' north latitude, the vote of Southern members 
stood — yeas, 39; nays, 37. The vote of Massachusetts, upon 
the first proposition, was 16 in the afiirmative, to 4 in the 
negative; that of South Carolina, upon the latter motion, 
was 6 in favor, to 4 against it. 

A striking comment upon the changes of human affairs 
and opinions is afforded by a glance at another contempora- 
neous cause of discord. This was the Tariff Act of 1816, 
which had been advocated by Southern statesmen, of whom 
Mr. Clay, then, and ever afterwards, the devoted supporter 
of domestic manufactures, was the most able and conspicuous. 
This legislative action was warmly opposed by the North, 
and especially by the New England members of Congress. 
By this act, the whole tariff system was remodelled, though 
afterwards more thoroughly revised and adapted to the 



THE PKOTECTrVE POLICY. 47 

object of protection, l>y the act of 1824. It was contended 
by the leading statesmen of New England, that the commer- 
cial interests of that section — that is, the profits derived from 
the importation of foreign manufactured goods, would be 
seriously imperiled by this legislation for the encouragement 
of home industry. The object of Mr. Clay and his associates, 
on the other hand, was to stimulate the production of the 
great Southern staple, by building up the Northern manu- 
factures, which were to be sufficiently protected by law to 
enable them to compete successfiilly Math foreign productions 
of this kind. 

It is needless to say which policy proved the soundest in 
the end. In fact, the opponents of the measure reaped the 
chief advantage from the system, which changed the waste 
and barren places of New England into thrifty towns and 
cities ; so that the North, by a complete reversal of condi- 
tions, far outstripped the South in point of material pros- 
perity, and derived immense profits from its manufactures, at 
the same time that its commerce became largely benefited and 
extended. Eventually, it hap^^ened, that a total change of 
its original views took place on this subject in the South 
also, and already a similar revolution of opinion had occurred 
generally at the North. The former changed front, and 
began to oppose its protective policy ; doubtless, out of re- 
taliation towards the increasing strength and virulence of the 
abolition movements against a system of labor, from the 
fruits of which, raised upon Southern soil, the vast fortunes 
of the North were growing up. This opposition, fostered by 
accumulating resentments, keenly felt in the one section, but 
generally deemed petulant and needless by the other, finally 
culminated in the South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification. 
This movement was set at rest, through the interposition of 
Mr. Clay once more, by the measure commonly called the 
Compromise Act of 1833; which was intended to effect a 
gradual reduction of duties, until, at the expiration of ten 
years, twenty per cent, ad valorem should be established as 
the uniform rate. The bill for this purpose was opposed by 



48 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

the manufacturing interest, and was, doubtless, in its effects, 
highly prejudicial to them. No change was made in this 
law during its jirescribed term, hut the whole system was 
reversed by the act of 1842, which essentially, and, as it ap- 
peared, improvidently raised the rates of duty. 

This legislation was complained of by the South, as a 
riolation of the terms and intents of the Compromise Act of 
1833. Mr. John Quincy Adams and twenty-four Northern 
Democrats, doubtless principally influenced by this view of 
it, voted with the Southern members against the passage of 
the bill of 1842. There can scarcely be a question of the 
right of Congress to alter the rate of duties, however, at the 
termination of the period fixed for the operation of a previ- 
ous act. It would be unreasonable to hold men forever to 
one point, in a matter so subject to cajDrices. It would be 
like nailing the weathercock. In 1846 it was thought judi- 
cious to pass an act reducing the rates of duties ; and upon 
this occasion, there appears to have been no sectional feeling 
engaged, since members from all parts of the country were 
mingled miscellaneously on the one side and the other. 
Among the names of those who voted against the proposed 
reduction, appear those of Mr. Davis of Kentucky, Mr. Gra- 
ham of North Carolina, and Messrs. Stephens and Toombs 
of Georgia, in company with Mr. J. Q. Adams and Mr. Win- 
tjirop of Massachusetts, and Mr. Hunt' of New York. On 
the other side are ranged the names of Mr. Davis of Missis- 
sippi, Mr. Cobb of Georgia, and Mr. Andrevt^ Johnson of 
Tennessee, with those of Mr. Hamlin* of Maine, Mr. Preston 
King' of New York, and Mr. Wilmot* of Pennsylvania. It 
was, on that occasion, the antagonism of Whigs and Demo- 
crats, not of sectional partisans. 

Up to the year 1820, certainly, no " aggression," as it has 
been styled, had been attempted by the South upon the 

^ Afterwards Governor of New York. 

* Vice-President during Mr. Lincoln's first term, 
^ Afterwards Senator of the United States. 

* Author of the "Wilmot Proviso." 



ACTION OF SOME NOETHEEN CONGEESSMEN. 49 

North. For any thing of the sort there had been neither 
motive nor occasion, of any general nature. The people of 
both sections were of one nation, and the South claimed to 
be animated by a spirit of the broadest patriotism. The 
North had its peculiarities ; tire relics, at least, of the old 
Puritan character, manner and temper. But, except in the 
display of a somewhat uneasy disposition, which had not 
seldom attracted observation, it furnished nothing to render 
it open to special attack, so far as national relations were 
concerned. The ancient quarrel about non-intercourse, the 
embargo, and the war with Great Britain, was with the Hart- 
ford Convention and other things of the past. From the 
very earliest period of the Union, certain persons had felt it 
their mission to tease Congress in regard to one phase or 
another of the subject of slavery ; but for many years their 
memorials had theu- origin solely among the " anarchic " sect 
of Pennsylvania. 

It seemed to give pleasure to certain Northern members 
of Congress to promote the views of those persons, so far as 
was in their power ; but the people of the North, in general, 
were profoundly indifferent on the subject. The South was 
none the less sensitive to every touch, that it was conscious 
of standing in a somewhat abnormal position, on this ac- 
count. But desiring, for many obvious reasons, to avoid 
discussion of an acknowledged evil, for which there was no 
apparent remedy, the South endured it as an inexpugnable 
fiict, and defended it when .attacked, as an unavoidable ne- 
cessity. They were disposed to do the best they could Avith 
it ; and thought that there Avas neither wisdom, cliarity, nor 
justice in the external and supererogatory concernment of 
others. The others could render no service by interference, but 
could certainly inflict injury, if they did not convert a now 
peaceable, and, lander due regulation, industrious kind of pop- 
ulation, clearly imposing its burdens, if bringing also its ad- 
vantages, into a source of serious alarm and danger. It was 
to this very point that Mr. Jefferson, at the period now un- 
der consideration, and near the close of his life, thus ex- 
3 



50 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

pressed himself, in relation to the action of the North on the 
Missouri Compromise question : 

" They are wasting jeremiads On the miseries of slavery, as if we were ad- 
vocates of it. Sincerity in their declamations should direct their efforts to 
the true point of difficulty, and unite their counsels with ours in devising some 
reasonable and practicable plan for getting rid of it." 

No exjjedient suitable for this purpose, however, appears 
to have occurred to his own mind, enlightened as it was by 
the teachings of philosophy and experience, and close as the 
idea of emancipation had always lain to his own heart. Nor 
has any such plan been devised by others. It was reserved 
for our own day to witness the summary means employed to 
effect a result, which may prove to have left the question in 
a far more troublesome condition, than during all those years 
in which fanatics, enthusiasts, and politicians have devoted 
themselves to bring it about. Unless that result is appar- 
ently beneficial to the nation, and the subject, or perhaps 
victim of the enterprise, no man is bound, stupidly and un- 
conscientiously, to accept it for the best. On the contrary, 
every intelligent, humane. Christian and patriotic citizen will 
feel that new and more weighty obligations have, thereupon, 
reverted to him. As a slave, the negro was nothing to the 
Northern man ; as a freedman, he is the charge of every cit- 
izen. What are the negroes the better for emancipation? 
is the great problem, with roots striking deep into the future 
of this world and the next. If, with a really honest motive, 
in the exercise of reason and humanity, we have sought thcv 
welfire of the dependent being by means rightfully at our 
command, then our action was virtue, whether it secure the 
end, or fail. If not, it was crime, and of stupendous magni- 
tude. 

Could any real question remain as to the point, upon which 
side of Mason and Dixon's line " aggression " actually be- 
gan, it would derive much elucidation from a comparison of 
the action of Northern members of Congress, in 1820-'21, 
with the course adopted at previous sessions of that assem- 
bly, in regard to the admission of new States. In the year 



YAEIOUS MODES OF ADlSnTTING STATES. 51 

1791, Yermont came into the Union, and Kentucky in 1792, 
without the submission of any Constitution to Congress hy 
either. Upon the ai^jolication of the inhabitants of Tennes- 
see, in 1796, some objection was made to its constitution, by 
a member from South Carolina, on the ground that it con- 
tained a clause repugnant to the Constitution of the United 
States. To this it was replied, that the latter was paramount, 
so that the objectionable clause was of no consequence, and 
Tennessee became a State without farther inquiry. 

In 1802, Ohio had framed a constitution, which was laid 
before the Senate, referred to a committee, and never re- 
ported upon. Indeed, the act of admission, passed in Feb- 
ruary, 1803, simply recites the fact, that, whereas, by the 
law of Congress, approved April 30, 1802, the people of the 
Territory of Ohio had been authorized to form a constitution 
and State government, therefore^ the said State of Ohio had 
become one of the United States of America. The Territory 
of Indiana, following Louisiana, to which reference has be.en 
made already in this volume, next applied for admission ; and 
the proceedings thereupon, concluded in December, 1816, 
Avere conducted as in the case of Ohio. Mississippi was en- 
rolled among the States, irv 1817, by virtue of an act author- 
izing the people of the territory to form a constitution and 
State government, and for the admission of the State into 
the Union ; thus coupling in one act provisions to expedite 
the process, which had heretofore been considered separately ; 
except in the cases of Vermont and Kentucky, in regard to 
which no particular formalities were observed. In the year 
1818, the constitution of Illinois was presented to Congress, 
whereupon objection was taken to it by a member from New 
York, because slavery was not sutJiciently prohibited by it. 
But the joint resolution for admitting the new State passed 
the House by a vote of yeas 117, nays 34, and the Senate 
without a division, and was approved by the President. 
"When the bill had been reported to the Senate for the admis- 
sion of MississijDpi, in 1817, objection was made to the vast 
extent of territory included within the limits of the proposed 



52 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

State. Thereupon, the domain was divided, and the eastern 
portion was named the Territory of Alabama. No mention 
"was made of slavery in the act passed for this purpose ; nor 
was the subject referred to iu the act of March, 1819, au- 
thorizing the inhabitants to form a State government. In 
December of that year, Alabama was admitted as a State, 
on the same terms, by unanimous consent of the Senate, and 
without division by yeas and nays in the House. 

Accordingly, it appears that the action of Congress up to, 
and in the very midst of the period of the Missouri contro- 
versy, had been conformable to the wishes of the peoj^le of 
the several territories, in all other cases, upon their applica- 
tion to become members of the Union. Slave States and 
free had been admitted indifferently, either with or without 
State constitutions. No test in regard to slavery had ever 
been proposed for territory south of the Ohio and west of the 
Mississippi Rivers. The situation of Missouri corresponded 
with the latter of these conditions ; and, perhaps, if the line 
of the Kansas River, running conveniently enough along the 
tract of Central Missouri, and extending through the middle 
of the present State of Kansas, had been adopted as the 
boundary between slave and free territory, the whole future 
contest might have been saved. The line of 36° "30' north 
latitude, on the other hand, coursed along the southei-n border 
of Virginia and Kentucky, and was objectionable, in every 
respect, as an. arbitrary and irrational bound of demarcation, 
if the wish or the hope were felt to maintain the jjeace. 

In order to show how the South regarded this " aggres- 
sion," on the part of the North, of which Missouri was the 
topic of dispute, the opinions of Mr. Jefferson, expressed in 
the midst of the contest, and afterwards, are of more value 
than those derived from any other source. This eminent 
statesman, then at an advanced period of life, an ardent 
friend of emanciiDation, whenever any practicable way for its 
accomplishment could be j^resented, and living totally apart 
from all the interests, embarrassments, and excitements of 
politics, gives this account of his habits of life and thought : 



SAD AUGUKIES OF ME. JEFFERSON. 53 

" Although I had laid down as a law to myself never to write, talk, or 
even to think of politics — to know nothing of public affairs — and had, there- 
fore, ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused and filled 
me with alarm." 

Such extracts from his various writings on this subject, as 
those below, are well deserving of attention, in illustration 
of the views already herein expressed iu regard to it, and as 
explanatory of constitutional obligations, by an eminent con- 
temporary of the Constitution. He further remarks : 

" The question is a mere party trick. The leaders of Federahsm, defeated 
in their schemes of obtaining power by rallying partisans to the principle of 
monarchism * * * are taking advantage of the virtuous feeling of the 
people to effect a division of parties by a geograpWcal line ; they expect that 
this will idsure them on local principles the majority they could never obtain 
on principles of Federalism. 

" Our anxieties in this quarter are all concentrated in the question. What 
does the holy alliance in and out of Congress mean to do with us on the Mis- 
souri question ? * * * Are our slaves to be presented with freedom and 
a dagger ? For if Congress has the power to regulate the condition of the 
inhabitants of the States within the States, it will be but another exercise of 
that power to declare them all free. 

" The coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geo- 
graphical line once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from 
the mind ; that it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irrita- 
tions, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render sepa- 
ration preferable to eternal discord.^ 

" The Missouri question, by a geographical line of division, is the most 

portentous one I ever contemplated. is ready to risk the Union for any 

chance of restoring his party to power, and wriggling himself to the head of 

it ; nor is without his hopes, nor scrupulous as to the means of fulfilling 

them. 

" The people of the North went blindfold into the snare, and followed 
their leaders for awhile with a zeal truly moral and laudable, until they be- 
came sensible that they were injuring instead of aiding the real interests of 
the slaves ; that they had been used merely as tools for electioneering pur- 
poses, and that trick of hypocrisy then fell as quickly as it had been got up. 

• " I envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits 
of their fathers' sacrifices of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate the 
experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man is capable of self- 
government. This treason against human hope will signalize their epoch in 
future history as the counterpart of the model of their predecessors. 

" I regret that I am to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice of them- 



54 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAS,. 

selves by the generation of IIIQ to acquire self-government and happiness 
for themselves is to be thrown away by the imwise and unworthy passions of 
their sons, and that my only consolation is to be that I Uve not to weep 
over it." 

Ho-w accurately this venerable statesraan foresaw the 
operation of the doings which he thus deplored, has been 
only too closely demonstrated by the course of subsequent 
events. To what absolute extent, either literally or in their 
spirit, his sad reflections and gloomy auguries have been ful- 
filled, need now be scarcely the object of inquiry. It _may be 
justly remarked, that, if the seed of national dissension was 
sown, at the establishment of the first geograjDhical line drawn 
in 1787, it was in the compromise measures of 1S20-'21 that 
the root of bitterness, growing out of that seed, was nurtured, 
from which sprang the future ills of the American Republic. 
For the Missouri Compromise was practically a shift to the 
future of a present embarrassment, by a bargain which either 
did not contemplate, or else did not regard the remote, but 
natural results likely to ensue, when affairs were ripe ; and 
sure, in that event, to prove the occasion of a still more ag- 
gravated quarrel. 

The North had made a practicable breach in that ordi- 
nary and equitable condition for the admission of States into 
the Union, that they be received- "on an equal footing with 
the original States, in all respects whatever." Slave States 
and free States ^ had originally formed tlie Union. For new 
States, therefore, an equal footing with the original States, 
in all respects whatever, could but be their admission, whether 
with or without slavery, indifferently. Southern men who 
voted for the measure, less provident of the future than Mr. 
Jefferson, can only have done so for the sake of quiet. But 
peace founded on exjDcdiency is not in its nature lasting. The 
Ordinance of 1787, though a violation of the princi^^les of the 
Constitution, was of no real import in its merely practical ap- 
plication to the territory subject to its provisions. Nature 

' Massachusetts and others, whicTi had provided for emancipation. 



ME. JEFFEESON ON NOETHEEN SEMESTAEIES. 55 

had originally established an ordinance paramount to it, but 
with which it coincided. 

In the other case it was different. Into a part of the 
national territory, in which slave labor was thought indis- 
pensable, and lying contiguous to slave States, under the 
same line of latitude, immigrants with their domestic train of 
laborers would be sure to find their way. Their arbitrary 
exclusion, therefore, was by the enforced application of a 
doctrine, which competent and judicious statesmen . have 
generally held to be quite outside of constitutional powers. 
Looking at the question from that point of view, it is cer- 
tainly difficult to see how considerations founded upon mere 
moral sentiment, or arguments derived from policy alone, 
could be entitled to wx'ight. In such a case,^thc funda- 
mental law of the land can be the only rightful criterion. 
While that remained in force, legislative action in contra- 
vention of its pro\isions could be but sectional and unpa- 
triotic ; and, therefore, hostile to that section of the Union 
which rested under the ban of its restriction. 

One other quotation from the correspondence of Mr. Jef- 
ferson should be added to the passages already given. It is 
of striking interest, and appropriately leads to a suggestion 
or two upon certain relations, other than political, which ex- 
isted at the period of the latter compromise between the 
North and the South. In a letter to a friend, he says : 

" The line of division lately marked out between the different portions of 
our Confederacy is such as will never, I fear, be obliterated, and we are now 
trusting to those who are against us in position and principle to fashion to 
their own form the minds and affections of our youth. If, as has been esti- 
mated, we send three hundred thousand doUai'S a year to Northern seminaries 
for the instruction of our own sons, then we must have five hundred of our 
sons imbibing opinions and principles in discord with those of their own coun- 
try. This canker is eating on the vitals of our existence, and, if not arrested 
at once, will be beyond remedy." * 

In this particular respect, however, the views of the 
venei-able writer were far less sound than on some other 

' Letter to General Breckinridge, Feb. 11, 1821. 



56 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

occasions. There was very little danger that the sons of 
Southern families would imbibe any prejudice against the 
slave system at their homes, among the young men with 
whom they chiefly associated at the colleges of the North. 
In those institutions, at the period in question, and in the 
existing condition of public sentiment among the better edu- 
cated classes at the North, it may be doubted whether such sub- 
jects of speculation had many charms for the youthful mind. 
Probably, the students from the free States knew little, and 
thought little, on the subject o"f slavery. It appears by the 
annual catalogue of Harvard College, that, in the year 1820, 
there were no less than fifty youths from various Southern 
States in its list of undergraduates, amounting altogether to 
two hundrofl and eighty-six. It is not improbable that they 
would be found in, at least, a similar proportion at Yale and 
Princeton, since the seminary at Cambridge was situated so 
much farther North. If Mr. Jefferson's computation were 
correct, the proportion must have been still greater in those 
two colleges, or the distribution may have been more ex- 
tensive. 

The effect of the temporary residence of these young per- 
sons in such institutions of learning was just the reverse of 
that which he imagined. Many of the dearest ties of friend- 
ship which earth affords were there formed, between them 
and their Northern classmates, which afterwards withstood 
all the mutations of diverse ways, and the chilling effect of 
time and distance, and lasted unaltered during their common 
lives. Doubtless, the sectional tendencies of many at the 
South, who held back during the late war, were more or less 
rejjressed by the influence of their early associations with 
New England college life ; and doubtless, also, the national 
patriotism of many at the North, who reverenced their whole 
country, was warmed and invigorated by the remembrance 
of their Southern friends, in days before worldly thoughts 
and things had subdued the freshness of generous sentiment 
and feeling. Many of those young men, from both depart- 
ments of the land, were sure to exert no little influence, in 



THE REVOLUTIONAEY WAK FOK WHITE MEn's LIBEETY, 57 

concert, ui>on future public affairs. Those from the South 
were even more likely than the others to take a leading part 
in politics, for they were generally the sons of men of fortune, 
and frequently of those already known in political life, and 
were less. subject to general competition for office than were 
their contemporaries in the Northern States. 

There were other causes at work, tending strongly to 
promote a better state of feeling among the widely diffused 
population of the country. The Roman historian tells us of 
a primitive people, remote from the imperial city, to whom 
every thing which was unknown seemed wonderful. Owing 
to some peculiarities of character and education among the 
inhabitants of the extreme North, and to a total ignorance 
of the condition of things at the South, whatever was not 
familiar to them, and which they did not understand at all, 
appeared to them simply and unqualifiedly objectionable. 
Whatever home instruction they had received upon the sub- 
ject was calculated still further to influence their prejudices. 
There had been a vast deal of enthusiastic declamation 
against " chains and fetters," during the Revolutionary War, 
and upon many anniversaries after it ended ; and the com- 
mon mind at the North found it difficult to discriminate be- 
tween the metaphorical enslavement of white men, though 
now released from that thraldom, and the practical, still- 
existing, bondage of the blacks. They forgot, that during 
the whole war for freedom, negro slavery had been kept up, 
as usual, by the champions of liberty, and remained in the 
same condition after the deliberate establishment of a free 
constitution. 

In a word, hating the abstract idea of slavery, they con- 
ceived that all mankind were entitled to, and qualified for 
the enjoyment of liberty. Assuredly, this was a radical 
error. Those who mistake liberty for an end, instead of a 
means, leave out of the reckoning its true aim, and the whold 
body of its uses. They forget that it is a good only, as a 
sign of ordei', safety, and the opportunity of improvement. 
Tljey are like those who should cheat themselves with the 
3* 



68 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

idea, that outward union with a Christian church answers all 
the purposes of religion. But civil liberty, unless it finds men 
fitted for it by character and capacity, so that it can make 
them wiser and nobler, better citizens and better neighbors, 
is mere license. Liberty, in fact, is but the embryo of a 
thing to grow ; a seed, the thriftiness and value of which de- 
pend altogether upon the nature of the soil in which it is 
soAvn. And when it has once sprung up, it needs steady 
nurture, or it will run to waste, and pine and die. It were 
poor husbandry to look .to weeds for the fruit of wholesome 
plants. The first may have their ixses ; but all the culture in 
the world could never draw a rose out of the stalk of a nettle. 

The people of the North had mainly forgotten all about 
the negro bondage of the i^receding generation, in its lan- 
guishing state, amongst themselves ; and that of the Abori- 
gines, at an earlier period, had passed quite out of recollec- 
tion. Their notions of the servitude at the South were very 
vague. In the maritime towns there was experience, for 
several years after the beginning of the present century, of 
the cruel slavery to which American seamen were occasion- 
ally subjected, after capture by the rovers of Algiers, Tunis, 
and Trij)oli. At the same period there were traditions from 
times not very remote, throughout New England, of the 
surj)risal of block-houses near the outskirts of civilization by 
the Indians, and of the march to Canada of those captives 
whom the tomahawk had spared, principally women and 
children, by toilsome and painful stages, and of their sale to 
the French inhabitants. 

A very afiecting narrative of the suflferings of several 
women with their young families thus taken prisoners and 
sold, in the year 1755, while France and Great Bi-itain were 
at war, appears in a school book, " The American Preceptor," 
once in extensive use, of which the stereotyped edition now 
referred to was published in Boston in 1815. It is gratifying 
to observe that those unhappy persons received kind treat- 
ment from the French families, into whose hands they had 
fallen, and from the French authorities, and that a certain 



ANTISLAVERY LITEEATUEE. 59 

number of them who survived were finally ransomed. There 
must be persons living in one of our seaport towns, who can 
recollect the obloquy to which a merchant had subjected 
himself, by refusing, or neglecting to furnish a ransom for 
his son, a slave among the Barbary poA^ers. The incident 
itself occurred not far from the beginning of the present cen- 
tury. In the same work, designed for the education of youth, 
besides a versified remonstrance, by Merry, against slavery, 
as authorized and kept up by the British Government in this 
country before the Revolution, there is a poetical piece by 
Mrs. Morton, entitled "The African Chief" In order to 
move the admiration of the reader for his dignity, as well as 
to excite compassion for the suflerings of the character eulo- 
gized, he is styled " The Princely Slave," and a single stanza 
will give at least some idea of the imaginative power of the 
poet : 

" A Chief of Gambia's golden shore, 

Whose arm the band of warriors led, 
Perhaps the Lord of boundless power, 
By whom the foodless poor were fed." 

Leaving this sonorous verse Avithout other literary criti- 
cism than of the image presented, it must be admitted that 
the picture is extremely fanciful. A lord of boundless power, 
in Africa, if there were any such to be found, was certainly 
a person as little likely to become a slave as the King of 
Spain. He, and every inferior " princely " chief, were always 
ready to take advantage of any opportunity to make a ready 
penny, by the capture and sale to white men, and to one 
another, of every one of their colored brethren upon whom 
they could safely lay their hands. Not the sons of Jacob 
had less scruple in selling Joseph to the merchant men of 
Midian, for twenty pieces of silver, than they about traffick- 
ing in their own flesh and blood. It is equally certain that 
" the foodless poor " would have been much more likely to 
be eaten up themselves, in many parts of Africa, if not, at a 
season of scarcity, on Gambia's golden shore, than to be par- 
takers of any of that bounty which the benevolent author 



60 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

supposed lier chief was in the habit of providing for their 
sustenance. 

By such sentimental eiFusions, in the school-book cited, 
and others, of the same period, and too often by exaggerated 
descriptions of Southern slavery in the Northern newspaper 
press, the minds of ingenuous youth were moulded. The 
latter teaching was prompted by political motives, as the 
former, doubtless, often was by ill-instructed considerations 
of humanity. But in this way it happened, and, to a certain 
extent, by the influence of the jiulpit, also, that the people 
of New England, especially, were educated in a system of 
prejudices against those who tolerated an institution, which 
seemed abominable to such as heard only about its worst 
features. At a much later joeriod, Avhen this sort of literature 
had become more telling in its effect, a highly popular writer 
gave to the world a series of poems, devoted to the special 
purpose of uplifting the negro in the general scale, and of 
exciting express and active sympathy in his behalf, as a 
slave. One of these pieces, which sets forth the interesting 
qualities of" a venerable colored person, begins by bringing 
him at once within the range of our religious associations : 

" Loud he sang the Psalms of David, 
He a negro and enslaved." 

But while this performance reminds one of Sir Piercie 
Shafton's remorseless chant of five hundred love verses, at 
the tower of Glendearg, the reference to the minstrel king 
in the couplet was, perhaps, introduced for the sake of the 
awkward rhyme ; since, proverbially vocal as the race is, the 
Psalms in question, either wholly or in part, must be sup- 
posed to have been sung only in the admirable paraphrases 
of Dr. Watts, or those of the Wesleys and others. After- 
wards, was produced by a lady, who even surpassed Mrs. 
Morton in imaginative faculty, that highly sensational ro- 
mance, in which the vicious incidents, which may have been 
spread over the surface of a generation, were collected and 
brought into the compass of a brief experience ; and then, 



A POLITICAL CALM. 61 

mixed up with absurdities and impossibilities, were exhibited 
as a picture of the effect of slaveliolding upon the suijerior 
race in the South, on the one hand ; while on the other, the 
worthy and pious black man, whose name and dwelling- 
place give the title to the work, was represented as the tyj)e 
of all those virtuous and noble qualities which have graced 
tlie lives and dignified the last hours of the most illusti'ious 
heroes and martyrs. 

If these exaggerated and distorted delineations were to 
be taken as true, it would seem that, whatever other objec- 
tions might be urged with justice against Southern slavery, 
it was a condition by no means inconsistent with a manifes- 
tation of the highest human characteristics. But after the 
arrangement of the Missoui'i question, a considerable period 
had elapsed, and a great deal of training had been under- 
gone, before the public mind of the North was prepared to 
give writings of the latter description, the enthusiastic wel- 
come which at length they actually received. After the cul- 
mination of that controversy, the toj^ic of slavery, in most 
of its aspects, ceased, for a series of years, to excite any par- 
ticular interest in the popular mind.' Sectional sentiment, 
so far as it entered into the consideration of politics, had 
been thus far superficial and temporary in its influence among 
the masses of the people. 

* Enlightened philanthropists devoted themselves to the colonization of 
negroes in their native country, under continual opprobrium from the al:)oli- 
tionists, and the respectable and flourishing Republic of Liberia was the fruit 
of their thoughtful and liberal care. 



CHAPTER III. 

Tho former "Federalist" and "Eepnblican" Parties. — Political Questions during Mr. 
Monroe's Administration, and that of Mr. Adams and General Jackson. — Certain 
Sources of Good Feeling between the Sections. — West Indian Emancipation. — George 
Thompson. — Anti-Abolition Meeting in Boston. — John Henry. — Great Britain and 
tho United States. — "Washington's Advice. — Mr. Eoebuck's Speech at Sheffield, June 
10th, 1S65. — Progress of Abolition. — Views of President Jackson, Governor Marcy, 
Governor Everett, and Mr. Clay. 

The old party lines of Federalists and Republicans had 
become almost obliterated by the general fusion of both,. at 
the election of Mr, Monroe for President, in the year 1816. 
On that occasion, this slaveholding successor of Jefierson 
and Madison received the electoral suffrage of sixteen States, 
amounting in all to one hundred and eighty-three votes, 
against thirty-four given to his Federal rival, Mr. King of 
New York, by Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maryland. 
Mr. Monroe was chosen for his second term of office in 1820, 
by an electoral ballot lacking only one vote to make it en- 
tirely unanimous. The elements and the political tendencies 
of the former parties remained, indeed, distributed through- 
out all the several States, without essential change in the 
comparative numbers of the advocates of old opinions. 
France, in the mean time, had finally emerged from the vor- 
tex of revolution, had been an empire instead of a republic, 
and was now a monarchy under the rule of its ancient line 
of kings. The long European struggle had enlisted the feel- 
ings of the two parties in this country, in correspondence 
with their earlier j^reiDOSsessions. The war of the United 
States with Great Britain had still further widened this di- 
vision of sentiment. The occasion and the foundation of 



POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 63 

this diversity of opinion, however, had now passed aAvay; 
and it is probable that the popular feeling, which had been 
wrought upon until it led to the free-soil demonstration of 
1820, was very much owing to the want of any other ab- 
sorbing subject of national difference to engage the attention 
of political parties. 

During the course of Mr. Monroe's administration, how- 
ever, the several subjects of the Tariff, the United States 
Bank, of Internal Improvements and the Navy, had under- 
gone thorough discussion, and had finally awakened the 
eager interest of the nation. The first named, though ob- 
viously national in its general results, by promoting the rev- 
enues of the Federal Government, yet, in its specific opera- 
tion, affected the two sections in different ways. If the pro- 
tection afforded by it added to the value of the manufac- 
tures of the North, the tariff also furnished the South a 
nearer market for its chief productions, to be distributed 
among fellow-citizens, and to be procured at a lower rate of 
transportation. If the competition between the foreign and 
the domestic manufacturer brought down the price of the 
article, that evil would be partially cured at least, whenever 
the latter should be able to measure strength successfully 
with his foreign rival. As soon as it becomes no longer ad- 
vantageous to the foreigner to export manufactured goods 
into the country which produces the raw material, the price 
of that material to the home manufacturer becomes, to a con- 
siderable extent, within the control of its producer. 

By adhering judiciously and systematically to such a jjol- 
icy, as was originally proposed by the South and finally as- 
sented to by the North — but which was deviated from, upon 
political considerations totally apart from the interests act- 
ually at stake, and therefore substantially without regard to 
them — incalculable benefits would have accrued to the com- 
mon country ^and a closer bond of union would have been 
maintained.' The discussion of the other topics of national 

* Ou the oLlicr hand, it should be remarked that, upon constitutional 
ininciples, such a restriction of trade, or forced diversion of it from any of its 



64 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

policy referred to brought into more or less prominence the 
former differences of opinion, in regard to Federal and State 
rights. A national hank, a powerful navy, and a system of 
internal improvements, conducted under the patronage of 
the General Government, it was held by the opponents of 
those measures, tended to build up a formidable central 
power, not unlikely to jn'ove unfavorable to the common lib- 
erty. The second of these points was a mere question of 
policy, no more involving considerations of constitutional 
authority, than the support of a sufficient military force for 
the land service ; and it might have been remembered, that 
a navy in all ages has proved almost uniformly and signally 
patriotic. Mr. Monroe had doubted the constitutional power 
of the General Government to institute works of internal 
improvement ; but so impressed was he with the conviction 
of their general value and necessity, that he recommended, 
by message to Congress, an amendment of the Constitution, 
by which that power should be conferred. 

Doubtless, the benefits to be derived from such works 
would be felt very unequally by the several States since the 
improvements woiild be principally made in the compara- 
tively unsettled portions of the country, where they were 
most needed : but the eventual advantage, of a great public 

ordinary channels into one particular direction, could be defended only on the 
ground of making all the interests of the country contribute as equally as 
possible, in their degree, to the general benefit. Any system of domestic 
policy, for example, which tends to the limitation of free trade, ought to be 
adopted, if at all, in order to promote the welfare of the Repubhc, by 
strengthening the bonds of the Union. Hence, it was pecuharly incumbent 
upon the New England States, which derived especial advantage from the 
tariif system, to cultivate Union sentiments, and to discountenance whatever 
tended to enfeeble them. This they did fou a considerable period ; but at length 
it appeared that very many of those whose pi-ivate interests had been most 
promoted by such a system, after the North had obtained sufficient power to 
reestablish and to uphold it, were persuaded to change their political positions, 
and, with strange inconsistency, to serve the ends of the " geographical " 
party. This seems neither grateful nor just ; nor does it seem likely to pro- 
mote their substantial interests in the end. 



FEDEKAL AND STATE EIGHTS. 65 

road for instance, would accrue to all, either directly or inci- 
dentally. In regard to a Bank of the United States, for the 
deposit and ordinary use of the public funds under suitable 
safeguards and regulations, there seems to be no objection to 
Buch a corporate body, which does not apply to all human 
institutions ; to countervail which no safeguards whatever 
can be absolutely effectual. It is possible that such a bank 
might fall into the management of directors who were in op- 
position to a temporary administration. It is possible that a 
part of its funds might be sometimes lent to those intending 
to use them for party pui'poses. But from the nature of the 
case, such an institution must be managed, in general, by 
those who are entirely above all reasonable suspicion, and 
who could not deliberately, or even carelessly, misuse their 
trust, without a degree of depravity not to be imagined of 
any body of ordinarily honest men. 

All those measures excited warm opposition ajjd the 
strongest party feeling. But those which had not been al- 
ready adopted became soon a part of the public policy. The 
Bank, which stood uj)on as strong a foundation as any such 
institution in the world, until its foundation was taken away 
by the Government — which exhibited a singular jealousy for 
liberty by the exercise of a singularly arbitrary act — was 
broken down under the administration of President Jackson. 
But these great and exciting questions, which, in whole or 
in part, earnestly enlisted the public feeling, during the ad- 
ministrations of Mr. Monroe, and of his successor, Mr. John 
Quincy Adams, and finally of President Jackson, swept out 
of sight, almost altogether, those darker clouds, full of the 
fury of sectional agitation, which had hung so ominously 
over the country during the progress of earlier years. Ques- 
tions of constitutional authority, or limitation, which are 
matters of .opinion, resting purely upon a speculative basLs, 
and which do not touch directly either the j^ockets or the 
sensibilities of the common people, will usually settle them- 
selves in one way or another, at last, without danger to the 
order of society. 



66 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE.' 

This will occur, even -when they actually involve consid- 
erations of the deepest import to the general welfare. Na- 
tions seldom, or never, have fought for a principle, merely ; 
and when they have seemed to do so, it will he found that 
practical causes have been previously at work to bring them 
up to the final point. For example, not the most animated 
discussion of the Bank, or of Internal Improvements, could 
ever have stirred up the women and children of the Northern- 
States to that pitch of intolerant zeal, under the influence of 
which their individual feebleness lent, in its combination, 
such accumulated energy to the crusade of abolition. The 
signal efforts of the platform, the pulpit, and the school- 
house, so efficient in the latter direction, would have proved 
discouragingly futile, however earnestly devoted to the elu- 
cidation and recommendation of those other drier and less 
moving topics.' 

It may be well to recur for a moment to some of those 
causes, which had the happiest influence in keeping up good 
feeling between the two sections. Among a scattered agri- 
cultural population, like that in the Southern States, the ad- 
vantages of even common education covild not be enjoyed so 
readily as by the more compactly settled inhabitants of the 
North. Oftentimes, the great extent of the plantations, and 
the distance of the proprietors' residences from each other, 
would render that combination of interests inconvenient, by 
which schools could be established and maintained. In the 
Northern States, provision being made for this object by 
law, the richer classes are taxed like the poorer, according to 
their means, in order to secure the fundamental elements of 

^ Several years ago, when the contest ran high between two candidates for 
the Presidency, and questions of finance were pressing, an orator of more 
reputation than tact, at an evening caucus in one of our hirger towns, saw fit 
to address the assembly on the subject of the currency. Signs of impatience 
soon began to show themselves among the audience. The respectable chair- 
man repeatedly demanded order, with some temporary effect. At length the 
disturbance became almost tumultuous. " Order, order, gentlemen," cried the 
chairman ; " I know this is tedious, but it may be useful." 



MEANS OF EDIJCATION. ' 67 

education to all. Had the expenses incident to a common 
school system been left to the voluntary action of the peo- 
ple, in Loth parts of the country, it may be doubted if the 
disparity between the two, in point of instruction among the 
lowei; classes, would have been so great as has been often 
alleged. 

In order to remedy this evil as far as possible, the people 
of the South made large drafts upon the ampler educational 
resources of their Northern fellow-citizens. They manifested 
none of that apprehension of danger to the principles of their 
sons, through familiar intercourse with the peojjle of the free 
States, which had so troubled the imagination of that 
"apostle of universal freedom," Mr. Jefferson. They con- 
tinued for many years to send their young men, in large 
numbers, to the New England academies and colleges. It 
often happened, that they trusted these objects of their affec- 
tion and hope to such dangerous quarters, from a period of 
tender years, Avheu impressions are most readily received, up 
to the very dawn of manhood. At the same time they held 
out sufficient inducements to young men and young women 
of the North to come among them, as private instructors in 
their families, or as teachers of their better classes of schools. 
It was a very common thing for this requisition to be com- 
plied with ; and not a few of those afterwards distinguished 
in public affairs owed their first start in life to the compensa- 
tion, and to the advantages of various sorts derived from 
this description of useful service. Many of both sexes 
formed connections, which made it agreeable for them to re- 
main permanently in a j)art of the country to which they 
had repaired only for a temporary sojourn. A wide field 
was also open in that region for the offices of ministers of 
the Gospel; and very many eminent clergymen of the South 
have been of Northern extraction. Whatever unfavorable 
jDrcpossessions these young persons may have originally en- 
tertained, in regard to the prominent domestic institixtion of 
their hosts, they generally returned to their homes with their 
opinions very much modified, if not altogether reversed. 



68 OTSIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

Naturally, it followed, from the condition of things 
described, that the better classes of the people of the slave 
St-ates made frequent, and often annual journeys to the free 
States. They came to visit their children or brothers, or 
near friends, at the Northern literary institutions. Aftei-- 
wards, from habit, or for pleasure, or to escape the heat of 
their own climate, these excursions would last, not unfre- 
quently, for a whole summer long. The watering-places, 
the hotels, the mountains, the lakes, the shores of the North, 
were usually thronged at such a season with a class of visit- 
ors, who were generally welcomed and esteemed, for they 
were generally cultivated, refined, and genial. In the course 
of years, also, the intercourse of business between the two 
sections had become immensely enlarged, and of vastly in- 
creased value in its results to both. It requires little philoso- 
phy to recognize a period like this as the halcyon days of 
the rej^ublic, during which no thought of civil disturbance, 
or of the possibility of mutual slaughter, could find resting- 
place in any rational or patriotic mind. 

But when the brooding of the storm began, at length, to 
be heard, this whole agreeable scene suffered a de^Dlorable 
change. The summer birds, after much lingering delay, 
fairly took their flight, and repaired to their wonted haunts 
no more. As the abolition agitation became more and more 
vehement, and especially when the question of slavery be- 
came fixedly mingled with the politics of the country, ex- 
cursions from the South to the North, for social or healthful 
purposes, grew gradually less and less frequent, until, at 
length, they ceased altogether. For some years before the 
war, scarcely a youth from the former quarter could be 
counted in the New England seminaries • and the intercourse 
of business, which is the last to feel any sensible diminution, 
U230n merely political considerations, was largely aifected by 
the prejudices which had grown up between the two sections. 

The North had allowed its better sense and feeling to be 
perverted and irritated by the wild harangues of mad eutlm- 
siasts, and the acts of unscrupulous demagogues ; and the 



ANTISLAVEEY PETITIONS TO CONGRESS. 69 

South had retorted with oifensive measures, which it held 
important to its own protection. Saying nothing, for the 
present, of the eventual and outright struggle between the 
two, whether for political power or for civil security, it is 
certain that the decline of agreeable intercommunication be- 
tween the one and the other, which has been described, and 
which it was so much for the interest of both to maintain, 
was contemporaneous with unfriendly, at least, if not uncon- 
stitutional legislation by the Northern States ; fatally lead- 
ing, in due course of time and events, to slave-rescues, which 
were violent infractions of the Constitution, and to a " John 
Brown raid," which was mere brigandage in him, and on the 
part of those who set him on an ati-ocious attempt to insti- 
tute civil and servile war. 

Reference has already been made to the fact, that few 
petitions, touching uj)on the subject of slavery in any of its 
relations, had been presented to Congress between the years 
1827 and 1836. The instances appear to have been but two 
during that interval. The first, asking that children of slaves 
born in the District of Columbia might be declared free after 
a certain age, was offered to the House in 1827, and met with 
such general disfavor, that no action was taken in regard to 
it, except the refusal to print it by a large majority. The 
next case occurred in 1831, when Mr. John Quincy Adams 
presented fifteen memorials from inhabitants of Pennsylvania, 
relating to the abolition of slavery and of the slave trade in 
the District. It was upon this occasion, that, exijressing his 
disapprobation of making the first topic a matter of discus- 
sion in Congress, he moved the reference of the petitions to 
the Committee on the District. Subsequently, the commit- 
tee was discharged, at its own request, from further consider- 
ation of the subject. 

It is important, at this point, to inquh'e into some of the 
causes which set in motion the flood of memorials to this in- 
tent, which poured in upon both branches of the 24th Con- 
gi'ess, at its session of 1836. Certain it is, that an extended 
and simultaneous movement for the promotion of their ob- 



TO ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

jects, took place in the antislavery ranks at that time. 
Heretofore, the active abolitionists of the North had been 
few in numbers and insignificant in character and influence. 
The two great political organizations, extending throughout 
the country, M-ere known as the Democratic and the National 
Republican parties. The latter, not long afterwards, took 
the name of "Whigs, in reference to various strong measures 
of President Jackson's administration, which, as they thought, 
savored more of toryism, and, in fact, of absolutism, than of 
democracy. 

However general was the dislike of slavery in the free 
States, yet the abolitionists proper had only here and there 
a local society, consisting of a handful of zealous, but wrong- 
headed, men and women, of the class more recently known 
as the strong-minded. They met in obscure apartments, and 
attracted scarcely any public attention ; or, if brought to 
notice by accident, were the objects of only jsopular ridicule 
and contempt. The general public mmd was entirely settled 
in regard to the uselessness, as well as the unlawfulness of 
interference with slavery in the States ; and hence no mode 
of action was left to the abolitionists, except by occasional 
memorials to Congress upon indirect points affecting the 
question, or through their few unregarded publications, 
which were read by nobody but themselves. In the mean 
time, the steps which had been for some years in progress, 
for the emancipation of the blacks in the British West Indian 
possessions, had just reached that object.^ 

The course of this event had been watched with the ut- 
most eagerness by the abolitionists of the United States. 
Nor were they at all backward in seizing upon every argu- 
ment which could be derived from such an example. Eng- 
land had liberated four hundred thousand slaves, at the cost 
of £20,000,000, paid to their owners. She had a perfect right 
to do this, sinceher colonies were under the complete control of 
Parliament. The abolitionists in the United States, however, 

1 In 1834 and 1838. 



ME. GEOEGE THOMPSON. Yl 

would never listen to the suggestion of paying tlie South for 
its slaves, could its consent for thdlr liberation be procured ; 
but the General Government had no control whatever over 
the disposal of them. Six years before the consummation 
of this process, the highest courts of Great Britain had 
in vain endeavored to discover that peculiar characteristic of 
English air_, imputed to it by Lord Mansfield,* which, it had 
been before alleged, immediately interfered with the respira- 
tion of a slave, who ventured to step tij^on English soil." In 
fact. Lord Stowell decided that a British subject of one of 
the colonies might bring his slave with him to England, and 
take him back again still a slave ; involving very much the 
principle afterwards contended for, in regard to the terri- 
tories of this country. The basis of this opinion obviously 
was, that otherwise one British subject would not enjoy 
those rights which other English subjects did enjoy, or might 
if they chose — an argument appealing to princij^les which 
every Englishman would at once comprehend.^ 

The property of a certain class of white men, therefore, 
but accidentally, and, perhaps, involuntarily, thus classified, 
was recognized and protected by law, in contravention of 
those rights claimed, on the other hand, for negro slaves, as 
belonging to them indiscriminately with the whole human 
race. 

The first ostensible effect of emancipation in the British 
West Lidies was the appearance of the then obscure, but 
afterwards notorious, Mr. George Thompson, from London, 
on an abolition mission to this country. Well-known Amer- 
ican abolitionists had also visited England about the same 
period, and Exeter Hall became the common nest of that 
species of birds of which it was afterwards so conspicuously 
the nursing mother. The motive which had induced Mr. 
Thompson to undertake an enterprise at once so impertinent 

* See Lord Stowell's decision in tbe case of the slave Grace. 2 Haggard's 
Reports. 

' " Slaves cannot breathe in England." — Cowper. 

' See " Remarks on the Review of Inchiquin's Letters," in Appendix. • 



72 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

and so mischievous, if any effect whatever could ensue from his 
efforts, became speedily a' subject of some inquiry. It was not 
imagined that pure benevolence towards the human race had 
prompted a mission of such an extraordinary nature. When 
he was chosen, upon his return to England, to represent the 
Tower Hamlets in Parliament, it was seen that he did not 
work without his promised reward. The Boston Atlas of 
August 4, 1835, at that time the leading Whig newspaper in 
New England, in the course of some forcible remarks depre- 
catory of the antislavery agitation, thus expressed itself in 
regard to the movement in Great Britain : 

" We regret to learn that there is to be more American agitation on this 
subject in England. The Abolition Society is sending out agents to work for 
them there — how or to what end ? To raise funds for the purchase of the 
slaves; or to pay itinerants for preaching up an excitement in New England 
and New York ? " etc. 

That journal earnestly urged the propriety of a public 
meeting of the citizens of Boston, for the solemn considera- 
tion of this movement, which, it was then easy to see threat- 
ened the ruin of peaceable relations between the North 
and the South. Accordingly, in about a fortnight appeared 
a formal summons to a public meeting at Faneuil Hall, sub- 
scribed by the signatures of some eighteen hundred leading 
citizens, comprising the names of men belonging to both of 
the great political parties. Probably most of the signers of 
that document have passed away, after the lapse of thirty 
years ; but it might be a matter of curious interest to ob- 
serve how many there are among the survivors who have 
adhered to the constitutional principles, then thought so 
sound, so patriotic, and so essential to the preservation of 
the Union. 

An immense assembly gathered at the call. The presid- 
ing of&cer of the meeting was General Theodore Lyman 
(then Mayor of the city), a gentleman of the very highest 
social standing, at that time acting with the Democratic 
party, though of old Federalist connections. The resolutions, 
strongly in condemnation of the whole aboiition movement, 



BOSTON OPPOSED TO ABOLITION. 73 

were proposed by Mr. Richard Fletcher, a leading advocate at 
the Suffolk Bar, and shortly afterwards member of Congress, 
with appropriate introductory remarks. Addresses of a 
kindred sj^irit were made to an enthusiastic audience by Mr. 
Peleg Sprague, who had been a well-known Senator of the 
United States fi-om Maine, and became afterwards so eminent 
as Judge of the District Court of the United States for Mas- 
sachwsetts, and by Mr. Harrison Gray Otis, United States Sen- 
ator during the period of the Missouri controversy, who had 
also been Mayor, and who was distinguished by a graceful 
and fascinating style of eloquence, to which, it was thought 
by his contemporaries, that none of his rivals made any ap- 
proach. 

This effective gathering was soon followed by an " anti- 
abolition meeting," at the neighboring town of Cambridge, 
the seat of the University, conducted by gentlemen of sim- 
ilar standing, which adopted resolutions of a like import. 
If the abolition excitement were growing, the anti-abolition 
sentiment was vastly prepondei'ant. In a few weeks after 
these demonstrations, the English emissary, Thompson, who 
had already addressed some sympathizing circles in New 
York, but in no way to attract much public notice, advanced 
towards Boston ; speaking, on his way, to a faithful few at 
the town of Abington, in Massachusetts, afterwards noto- 
rious as the scene of those annual burnings of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, by that band of philanthropists 
whose wide-sweeping love for mankind left their own coun- 
try out of the sphere of their affections.* He had made one 
or two highly offensive speeches in the city, and word had 
been given out that he was to address the "Ladies Anti- 
slavery Society," at a set time ; but the manifestation of 
popular indignation in the neighborhood of the hall proposed 
for the occasion, was such as completely to discourage him 
from making his appearance. Indeed, he sought the earliest 
opportunity to quit a country, secretly and in disgust, which 
had shown so little gratitude for his disinterested intention 
of setting its people by the cars. 
4 



74 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

It was upon this occasion that his American confederate, 
Mr. Garrison, though by birth a native of the British Amer- 
ican provinces, was let down by a back windov,^ of the 
building engaged for the occasion, and attempted to conceal 
himself. He was hunted out, however, and then rescued by 
the city officers from a mob, which was too good-natured to 
intend him any serious mischief; and he declared, as the por- 
tals of the common prison, to which he was taken for safety, 
were at length shut upon him, that " never before was a man 
so glad to get into jail." 

There were many who remembered, upon this occasion 
of the visit of Thompson, the appearance of a certain British 
subject, one Captain John Henry, in New England, for a 
correspondent object, somewhat less than thirty years pre- 
viously. The only diiference between the missions of the two 
was, that Henry came with the avowed design of promoting 
those divisions between the North and the South, which had 
grown out of the non-intercourse and embargo acts ; and 
Thompson, professedly on the part of the negro, but really 
to make use of antislavery agitation, in order to effect the 
same purpose which had been the design of his predecessor. 

The subject of interference in our affairs by British agents 
deserves a candid examination, and far more attention than it 
has yet received. Perhaps the children of those who invited 
this Thompson over, on his more recent visit to this country, 
and countenanced him, while here, in the not very efficient 
services which a foreigner could then render, to foment civil 
troubles already to*o far advanced to admit of aggravation 
by such means, may have occasion hereafter to blush at the 
conduct of their fathers. It scarcely comports with the 'inten- 
tion of this work to discuss, in their details, the circum- 
stances attending the earlier agency of Henry. Whoever 
may desire to become fully possessed of the facts in the case 
will obtain a fund of information on the subject in Benton's 
" Abridgment of the Debates of Congress." ' • Certain it is, 

» Yol. IV., p. 506 etseq. 



inSSION OF ME. JOHN HENEY. 75 

that this person was in the employ of the British Govern- 
ment ;, that he entered the United States, by the way of 
Canada, in the year 1809, and repaired to Boston ; and though 
he found little popular sentiment, eventually, to encourage 
him in the pursuit of his avowed object, which was the sep- 
aration of the Eastern States from the Union, the fact remains 
in(5isputable that he was possessed of official authority to 
proceed in his undertaking. Upon the failure of his enter- 
prise, and of his expected reward, he placed his correspond- 
ence on the subject at the disposal of the Government at 
"Washington. He thus betrayed his employers ; but, how- 
ever low his treason may sink his own character, the informa- 
tion which a traitor furnishes may, nevertheless, be true ; and 
it affords as strong ground for action as that derived from 
an honorable source, if sufficiently corroborated by other more 
trustworthy testimony, or by circumstances of sufficient 
weight to give it reasonable title to credit. The British 
Minister at Washington disclaimed all knowledge of this, 
intrigue for himself, and expressed his conviction that the 
Government of Great Britain could have had no complicity 
in schemes hostile to the internal tranquillity of the United 
States. 

The President, Mr. Madison, however, whose communi- 
cation of these documents to Congress had called forth the 
note of the British Envoy, stated in his message of June 
1,1812: 

" It has since come into proof, that at the very moment when the public 
minister was holding the language of friendship, and inspiring confidence in 
the sincerity of the negotiation with which he was charged, a secret agent 
of his government was employed in intrigues, having for their object the sub- 
vcrdon of our Government, and a dismemberment of our happy lInio7i." 

The Committee of Foreign Relations, to which the Presi- 
dent's 3Iessage was referred, among other justifying causes 
of war, declared : 

"The attempt to dismember our Union, and overthrow our excellent Con- 
stitution, by a secret mission, the object of which was to foment discontent 
and excite insurrection against the constituted authorities and laws of the 



T6 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

nation, as lately disclosed by the agent employed in it, affords full proof that 
there is no bounds to the hostility of the British Government towards the 
United States ; no act, however unjustifiable, which it would not commit to 
accomplish their view. This attempt excites the greater horror, from the con- 
sideration that it was made while the United States and Great Britain were 
at peace, and an amicable negotiation was depending between them for the 
accommodation of their differences." 

It is well worthy of recollection that Mr. Calhoun was 
Chairman of the Committee which made this report, expres- 
sive of such warm attachment to the civil institutions of the 
country, and of indignation at any foreign interference to 
its prejudice. The Report had set forth tlie wrongs, which, in 
the judgment of the committee, called for an immediate 
appeal to arms, and recites this particular intrigue as " an 
act of still greater malignity than any of those which have 
already been brought to your view." The Report was 
accepted by Congress, and the bill declaring war against 
Great Britain was thereupon passed. The proceedings in 
the House of Lords (May 5, 1812), upon the call for the cor- 
respondence in relation to this affair, would seem to furnish 
conclusive evidence in support of Henry's revelations. At 
the close of the debate, Lord Holland declared that the 
charge " remained unrefuted ; " but the ministry was sus- 
tained by a vote of 73 peers against the production of the 
papers, to 27 in favor of the motion. It was one of those 
cases which sometimes occur, in which the justice of the 
defeated claim of the minority was made at least morally 
clear by the party action of the majority. 

The motive for such a precedure, on the part of Great 
Britain, at that period, may not seem very transparent, at 
first sight. That resentful feelings would still linger in many 
of the hearts and homes of our ancestral isle, against the 
rebellious provinces which had wrested the recognition of 
their independence, twenty-six years earlier, from the mother 
country, was natural enough. But such a state of feeling 
would hardly account for active efforts by the British admin- 
istration to promote civil dissension in the country, unless 
some expectation of advantage from the undertaking gave a 



GREAT BEITAm AND THE UNITED STATES. Y7 

spur to the sentiments of wounded pride. But the truth is, 
that, during the considerable number of years Avhich had 
ekipsed between the peace of 1V83 and the date of Henry's 
mission, Great Britain had never become quite free of the 
impression that the States of America were yet her own colo- 
nies. The idea of republican institutions was offensive to 
her ; they were of very dangerovis example, and a mere exper- 
iment of, at least, very doul&tful issue. 

Probably, the ruling classes of Great Britain had not 
become, at that time, so much alarmed as afterwards, on 
account of the influence which a young and vigorous Kepub- 
lic might exert on her own institutions. Only a few months 
earlier than the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown, an 
event Avhich was substantially the end of the war, long be- 
fore evidently turning in favor of the rebels, a motion was 
made in the House of Commons, "that his Majesty's minis- 
ters ought immediately to take every possible measure for 
concluding peace with our American colonies." Nor was it 
until the termination of the War of 1812, that the separation 
of her ancient, and certainly beloved, if sometimes ill-treated 
American possessions, from Great Britain, was looked iipon 
by that nation, generally, as final and irretrievable. The 
year 1809 was among the most gloomy in the modern annals 
of England. Some years before, Mr. Pitt had folded up the 
map of Eurojje, in token of his judgment, that the supremacy 
of his country in the afiairs of the world had been taken 
from her hands, and that her own protection and defence 
would henceforth require her undivided attention. Napoleon 
was now at the very height of his glory and his power. It 
was not unnatural that England shoiild turn her eyes towards 
her ancient possessions in the young and vigorous Republic 
of the "West, kindred in blood, and still allied to her by 
many ties of old affection. Nor was it strange, however 
erroneous and unjustifiable such a project might be, that she 
should think of strengthening her hands, in her extremity, 
by a little policy ; which, taking advantage of existing dis- 
sensions among the children of lier own body, might finally 



To OEIGIN OF THE LATE \VAE. 

bring them all together to her hand, and replace them as 
precious jewels in her crown, and once more, by their gallant 
aid, bid defiance to the great waster of cities, and to the 
united world. 

At the period of Mr. Thompson's ill-omened and ill-fated 
adventures in this country, a combination of motives must 
be assigned for the encouragement afibrded to his imdcr- 
taking by those in whose service he acted. That his mis- 
sion was prompted by those in the possession of political 
influence, appears evident enough fi-om the fact, that the 
recompense which he received for his services, upon his re- 
turn home, was itself of a political character. If well-known 
reports in regard to his pre\'ious history are worthy of credit, 
this person was very unlikely to have been elected on his 
own merits, to represent a portion of the constituency of 
London in Parliament. Xor was this legislative experiment 
repeated in his favor. His employers appear to have thought, 
that they had sufficiently discharged themselves of any obli- 
gation which they might have incurred to their agent, by 
conferring upon him a barren designation, for a single term 
in the imperial assembly ; and, so far as appears, he remained 
in an obscure condition from the time of his first appearance 
in the United States, in the year 1835, until his second ad- 
vent, in 1864. At the latter period, anybody would pass 
muster among a large portion of the American community, 
who professed indifference to color, or, perhaps, preferred 
African to Caucasian complexions, with whatever hues his 
own personal reputation might have been tinged. 

But in the inteiwal between 1809 and 1835, vast changes 
had taken place in the fortunes of this coimtry. The strug- 
gling Xew Englanders of the period immediately succeeding 
the War of 1812-15, who then emigrated in crowds to "The 
Ohio," as the western country was familiarly denominated — 
longr before "The Far "West " had even entered into the im- 
aginations of the people of the Atlantic border as a place of 
settlement — had become extremely j^rosperous, in the course 
of sometliing less than a generation. The manufactming 



THE POLICY OF GEEAT BETTAIN'. 79 

interests of the Eastern States liad risen to rapid and vast 
consequence, at tlie enchanting touch of enterprise and indus- 
try. Their commercial marine covered the ocean, and had 
penetrated to the remotest harbors of the globe. They suc- 
cessfully competed with Great Britain upon her ancient and 
favorite domain of the seas, and promised soon, if they did 
not already, more than to rival her in those departments of 
manufacture which she had held to be even more exclusively 
her own, and to which she had long owed the chief elements 
of her unequalled wealth. 

This state of affairs had by no means escaped the anxious 
attention of the parent country. Here was a great and grow- 
ing Republic, which, in the progress of half a century, had 
reasonably tested the endurance of its democratic institu- 
tions ; occupying an immense extent of territory, in com- 
parison with which that of Great Britain proper was of the 
most insignificant dimensions ; in its vast variety of soil, 
climate, and productions, exemplifying the characteristic 
qualities and capacities of every quarter of the globe ; and 
possessing a population of unsurpassed intelligence and ener- 
gy, gi\"ing tokens that in another generation it would outrun 
in numbers the teeming millions of the mother-land, Xot 
only was it burdened with no debt, but in the year 1833 
there was found to be a surplus revenue of many millions, 
steadily accumulating in the public treasury, which, by an 
act of legislation, probably imparalleled in the history of na- 
tions, was in that year distributed among the States, to be 
by them appropriated to such local objects of public use and 
improvement as their several legislatxu-es might deem most 
fitting. Such was the condition of its credit, that a bank- 
bill of the United States Bank was as good in China as 
specie, when the exaction of silver w^ the rule — ^perhaps the 
invariable rale — in the commercial transactions of the people 
of that Empire with the traders of other nations. The 
pirates of the Indian seas had been taught, by exemplary 
chastisement, that the arm of the Western Eepublic was 
long enough and strong enough to avenge the wrongs of its 



80 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAB. 

citizens, in whatever remote corner of the world ; and the 
star-emhlazoned flag commanded universal respect in the 
waters of whatever zone it floated to the breeze. 

It was impossible that a spectacle like this should fail to 
be the occasion of alarm among various thoughtful and in- 
terested classes in Great Britain. She was in gi-eat danger 
of being outstripj^ed in both her commercial and her manufac- 
turing pursuits.^ The vision of the New Zealander, con- 
templating the ruins of her deserted capital from a broken 
arch of Loudon bridge, might not prove altogether an illu- 
sion of the imagination. The promised advantages of the 
Western hemisphere were di'awing into the tide of emigra- 
tion hundreds of thousands, annually, of her " bold peasant- 
ry, a country's pride ; " while the clamors for reform of those 
who remained behind filled with novel apprehension the 
minds of the " j^rinces and lords," . who considered the 
strength, the splendor, and still brightening prospects of the 
now rapidly maturing Republic. 

The danger to the civil institutions of the kingdom — 
especially to the aristocratic orders of its society — from such 
an ominous democratic example, Avere thought by many to 
be only too appalling. From other European countries they 
had nothing to fear on this particular score. The grada- 
tions of society were of a similar character in them all ; and, 
besides, whatever "occasional overturns might for a time dis- 
turb their several communities, the difierence of language 
was an insuperable bar to any common bond of general 
revolution. When God confounded the speech of men upon 
the plain of Shinar, they became scattered abroad over the 
face of the earth, according to their several means of com- 

' A very interesting lett* of Professor S, B. Morse, of New York, giving 
the statements of General Wilson, a British officer, employed by the govern- 
ment in the arrangements for emancipation in the West Indies,- has Been 
before the public for some years. The statement of General Wilson was, that 
Great Britain sought a footing, by this act of emancipation, from which to 
promote dissensions between the North and South, in regard to slavery, so as, 
by disunion, if possible, to promote her own manufacturing interests. 



THE OPPOSITION PEERS. 81 

municating by words with each other. But here was a 
mighty people growing up, of a language, a literature, and 
a spirit, identical with the tongue, the sentiment, and the 
temper of the ancient land, claiming for themselves vast im- 
provement upon ancient social and political forms, and daily 
welcoming to their shores throngs of those, who had left the 
old world in weakness and dissatisfaction, but who longed 
for the day when they might return to it, in strength and in 
hope, for its own future reformation. 

It seems, to be sure, scarcely less than chimerical, for 
British statesmen to entertain serious alarm in regard to a 
fabric so substantial as that of the British aristocracy, built 
upon landed possessions which cover three-quarters of the 
kingdom, buttressed by a parliamentary power which is 
more than three-quarters their own, whichever party may be 
up in the State, and holding in their own hands the almost 
entire control of every means of defence. That such a panic, 
however, was then more or less j^revalent, and has ever since 
exercised important influence upon their sentiments, can be 
no more reasonably doubted, than that Mr. George Thomp- 
son came to this country, in 1835, for the purpose of stirring 
up strife between the free and the slave States, and that he 
was rewarded for his labors with a seat in Parliament, upon 
his return home from his bootless errand. 

Upon the eve of the declaration of war by the United 

States against Great Britain, the official charge, brought by 

the administration of this country against the British minis- 

tr_j, of having contrived secret agencies with a view to eifect 

a dismemberment of the Union, stood " un refuted," by the 

judgment of Lord Holland, the Earl of Lauderdale, and 

twenty-five other opposition peers. At the time of Thompson's 

mission, the direct motives for setting on foot new intrigues, 

in order to promote the same object, were multiplied beyond 

comparison, in number and in weight. Few persons would 

be so uncharitable as to believe, that any such design Avould 

be entertained or countenanced by the main body of the 

English people. But it requires an extraordinary stretch of 
4« 



82 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. • 

charity to imagine, that the emancipation of the blacks in 
the West Indies was due to any mere sentiment of philan- 
thropy, overcoming, among a people of solid sense, their 
inevitable convictions, that owner and slave must -be alike 
sufferers in no common degree by the change. And even 
such an almost boundless degree of charity must be still more 
elastic, to conceive that this otherwise Tinaccountable act of 
the British Parliament were owing to any other cause, than 
the design to use the cheaply purchased liberation of their 
own slaves as a lever to overturn the oVganized system of 
labor in the Southern States, and thus to disturb, if not to 
destroy, one of the main sources of the prosperity of the 
country. Or else, should that project fail, it was to employ 
the same instrument as a means of aggravating dissatisfac- 
tions, then scarcely composed, between the two sections ; so 
that in the event of separation, British manufacturers and 
merchants might derive commercial advantages, not likely to 
be so readily accorded by the South to the hostile North. 

It might be easy, if it would not seem tedious, as well as 
needless, by showing the course of public and private, if not 
official action, coming down to a very recent date, to confirm 
a view of the case which presents itself with tolerable clear- 
ness on its very surface. The history of mankind instructs 
us, that moral considerations are by no means the leading 
motives in the construction of the devices of statesmanship. 
In the eyes of cabinets, a foreign nation, and especially one 
which is a rival in regard to important intei-ests, is almost 
inevitably looked upon in a hostile light. Very unnei^h- 
borly means would be used without hesitation to its disad-. 
vantage, if involving no public danger, by men who would 
shrink from the idea of a base transaction in their private 
relations. Upon that occasion, whatever designs were formed 
unfavorable to our national welfare were doomed to at least 
a temporary failure. 

In later times, the tokens of our original maternal origin 
have been more manifest. We have listened with more com- 
placency to the voice of tlie charmer. We have taken and 



' MARSHALL ON THE FAKEWELL ADDKESS. 83 

eaten the fruit, which has shut us out from a primal condi- 
tion never to be too much deplored. The admonitory coun- 
sel of the Father of his Country, in that farewell address, 
Avhich Chief Justice Marshall has told us, " contains pi-ecepts 
to whith the American statesman cannot too frequently re- 
cur," we have forgotten. We have disregarded the solemn 
warning of that address against the seductive arts of other 
nations, whose interests were adverse to our own, and which 
could employ those arts only to lull us into dreams of secu- 
lity, from which we should awake despoiled. It tells us : 

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe 
me, fellow-citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake ; 
since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most 
baneful foes of a republican government." 

We have listened to the alien emissaries of foreign com- 
binations against our peace, declaiming to us from the fo- 
rums and the pulpits on our own soil; and we have seated 
the native-born agents of the same unfriendly influence in 
our own high places of political power. We have even 
.sought instructions for the conduct of our republican in- 
stitutions from the traditional toryism of Oxford. It is 
as if Cromwell had taken counsel of those halls, which 
were the hope and the refuge of the tyrant Charles, when 
almost all things else had abandoned him to his fate. We 
have disdained the precepts of that long line of illustrious 
citizens, who, from the, days of Washington to our own, 
have been the supporters of the Constitution, which is but 
another name for the champions of public and pi-ivate lib- 
erty. We became as wearied of the praises of that great 
charter of our freedom, as the Athenians were of hearing 
their incorruptible lawgiver called " the Just." Instead of 
Marshall and Clay and Webster and Crittenden, and the 
host of men of bright and noble names, the living and the 
dead, who in or out of the line of political life have illus- 
trated our annals by the defence of our institutions — in the 
very midst of a convulsion, shaking the Republic to its cen- 
tre — George Thompson and Goldwin Smith, and John Bright 



84 OKIGLSr OF THE LATE WAE. 

and Stuart Mill, have been our accepted instructors ; not to 
mention the blandishments of a brilliant list of distinguished 
foreign ladies, with their compliant satellites among our own 
fellow-citizens. We have often descended very low, beneath 
any known standard of ability and merit, to find the states- 
man who should be the guide and shield of the Republic. 

Scarcely has such an instance of fatuity been exhibited to 
mankind, since the Children of Israel, ^ the foot of Mount 
Sinai, when He, who by His servant had wrought their great 
deliverance, went before them, daily and nightly, in cloud or 
in flame, compelled their other prophet, out of their own 
senseless gold, to make for them an idol, which should be the 
express symbol of all brutish weakness and imbecility. And, 
perhaps, it will at length appear plain to the understanding 
of all, which was clear enough beforehand to the compre- 
hension of prudent men, that we have impoverished our- 
selves for the benefit of our chief commercial rival ; that we 
have essentially diminished and put oif, for an indefinite time 
to come, our means and chances of recovery. To say noth- 
ing, here, of public and private losses and sacrifices, most of 
which might have been averted by pursuing a policy, Avhich 
would have been judicious in the degree that it was honest ; 
or of heavy burdens, yet to be felt in their extreme severity, 
from most of which we might also have been saved — we 
have taken counsel of our follies and our fears, and have 
imposed upon ourselves another burden, likely to prove in- 
tolerable in the end, by the enforced discharge from restraint 
of 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 helj^less and irresponsible creatures, 
hitherto entirely dependent upon others, and incapable, by 
nature, of the independent action demanded by a civilized 
community. 

If, then, we should now complete this notable work, by 
conferring upon the negroes a nominal equality, and ask of 
them to enter upon the exercise of privileges and j)owers, to 
which they are, and must remain forever, incomjDetent, we 
shall show ourselves also most unworthy and incapable of self- 
government, which is the government of the understanding, 



AFTER DmNEK SPEECHES. 85 

and not of passion or sentiment. We shall then put our 
folly to its climax, gratify by our self-degradation the worst 
hopes of our most malignant enemies, and secure for our- 
selves the unqualified amazement, at least, of all men, now, 
and of the remotest ages of the worl^. 

At this time commenced that systematic organization of 
the whole machinery of abolition, which required a consider- 
able series of years for the complete development of its influ- 
ences. Whether at the beginning it acted in concert with, 
and was based upon the English antislavery movement, the 
candid and judicious reader will consider. A vast deal of 
amiable sentiment has been uttered within the last thirty 
years, but, perhaps, more on this side of the Atlantic than 
the other, in regard to the relations which, it was conceived, 
ought to exist between this country and Great Britain. The 
general tenor of these ex2:>ressions has been, that we are of 
one blood and language, interested in a common literature, 
and some have gone so far as to say, in a common history. 
It is believed that such remarks have been made most fre- 
quently by those who, while thev were thus excluding the 
other nations of the earth from the benefits of that peculiar 
sympathy and affection held due to England, were at the 
same time for including the colored race within the vnde 
circle of a universal human brotherhood. 

" y«^ith all her faults," very great respect is undoubtedly 
due to England. In all that constitutes the greatness of 
kingdoms, she is unquestionably supererainent abov-e all 
civil communities that are, and perhaps all that have hereto- 
fore existed upon the face of the whole earth. For many 
weighty reasons, it would be such a calamity to the world 
as has not happened since the fall of man, if by some over- 
whelming convulsion she were struck out of the list of em- 
pires. Nevertheless, in something more than a merely literal 
sense, every one of those commonj^laces, which have so often 
formed the staple of after-dinner sj^eechcs, when citizens of 
both countries have been in company witli each other, is at 
least susceptible of dispute. We know there are many who 



86 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAR. 

can count an unmixed descent from the first English settlers 
ujDon these shores. But, in no small degree, our blood has 
been mingled with that of millions of wanderers from every 
other nation under heaven. Though the English* tongue is 
certainly by far the most prevalent among us, yet the 
languages spoken in the United States are as various as the 
dialects of counties in Great Britain.^ "We have, therefore, 
any thing but a universal interest in her literature ; and as 
for our history, it became, to all intents and purposes, dis- 
joined from her own, upon the formal recognition of the in- 
dependence of the United States. In any other than the 
ordinary sense of amicable alliance with a people, with whom 
we have no national interests in common, except those which 
are common to both with all civilized mankind, it is a mis- 
fortune to us that England should be regarded, on our part, 
in any other light, than that in which, according to the lan- 
guage of diplomacy, "the most favored nations" are viewed. 

To be the satellite of another power, in an earthly sphere, 
is to be its victim. The truth of the matter is, that England 
has pursued her own interest, naturally without regard to 
that of this country ; whif^ we liave allowed ourselves to be 
deluded out of a great position which gave us a decided ad- 
vantage over her. In fact, after the separation of these 
States from the mother country was effected, we should al- 
ways have kept in fhemory that clause of the Declaration of 
Independence, which placed Great Britain precisely on the 
footing of other foreign nations, as " enemies in war — in 
peace, friends." But we should have been only the more 
guarded against any special weakness towards her, that she 
had principal interests running counter to our own. 

In illustration of these remarks, the subjoined passages 
from a speech recently addressed by Mr. Roebuck, M. P., to 

* Pegge's " Anecdotes of the English Language," tells us of " the unintelli- 
gible gabble of nine-tenths of the provincial inhabitants of the remoter parts 
of England, which none but the natives can understand. Bring together two 
clowns from Kent and Berkshire, and I will wager a ducat that they will not 
be able to converse, for want of a dialect common to them both." 



SPEECH OF MR. ROEBUCK, M. P. 87 

his Sheffield constituents, will be found extremely apposite. 
The London Times of June 10, 1865, from which paper these 
extracts are made, thus describes the meeting : 

Sheffield.— Mr. J. A. Roebuck, M. P., and Mr. G. Hadfield, M. P., ad- 
dressed an open-airineeting of their constituents, yesterday in Paradise Square. 
The capacious square was crowded, there being upwards of ten thousand 
persons present. The Mayor (Mr. Jessop) presided. At present there are no 
opposition candidates in the field. 

In defending himself against such objections to his public 
course as were brought forward by his opponents, and wliicli 
a candidate for office, at the English hustings, is pretty sure 
to be called upon to meet, Mr. Roebuck came to the follow- 
ing point : 

" The last time I expressed my opinion in this town about America was in 
this very square ('It was,' and 'Hear, hear'), and the people of Sheffield up- 
held my opmions. (' Hear, hear,' and ' No, no.') I say they did. They 
outvoted you (turning to the malcontents, who retorted by again crying ' No, 
no') — they outvoted you. ('No.') Can you have the face to look me in 
the face and deny it ? (The Mayor asked for order.) There was a meeting 
like this ; the opinions of that meeting were taken, and the gentleman who 
opposed me said, ' You have fairly won the fight.' (' Hear, hear,' cheers, and 
' So he did.') But what then ? Was I wrong ? ('Yes,' ' No,' and Mr. Glegg, 
'Certainly.') I say I am as opposed to slavery as you ('Hear, hear '), but 
there are many ways of getting rid of slavery. One is to get rid of the slave. 
That is being done at the present moment. They are dying by hundreds of 
thousands. (' Where ? ' and ' No.') I then said, and I say now, that the best 
way of emancipating the slaves, was to do it gradually and carefully ; to fit 
them for freedom, and by that means not to incur the horrible guilt of killing 
many millions of your fellowmen. (Laughter.) That is all I need say about 
America. (' How about recognizing the South ? ') I am quite sure that if the 
South had been recognized, great good would have been done. (Cheers.) In 
the first place, the arrogant, the overbearing, and great Republic of America 
would have been split in two (cheers, and a hiss), and for the safety of Europe 
that is required." 

It cannot be alleged that these were the expressions of 
individual opinion merely, since it appears that a majority 
of the voters of Sheffield upheld their member, in the pro- 
mulgation of these views, on the former occasion ; nor is it 
to be imagined that those who entertain such sentiments are 
circumscribed by the bounds of a single manufacturing dis- 



OO OEIGDT OF THE LATE WAR. 

trict; or that they are not as likely to be held by many 
other members of Parliament, as by Mr. Roebuck, though 
his own temperament may lead him to blurt out ideas, which 
more politic or cooler Englishmen may withhold from public 
assemblies. 

At a later stage of his remarks, the member for Sheffield 
recurred to the same subject, and specifically explained the 
grounds of the policy which he conceived should have been 
adopted by Great Britain towards the United States. Mr. 
Roebuck is a Liberal and a reformer, and it will be observed 
that, both on economical considerations [quoad Great Britain) 
and humane principles [quoad the negroes), he held it better 
for '■''the great Republic of America to he split into two.''"' 
He thus expressed himself upon this point, and has been 
subsequently reelected by the same constituency : 

" The reason I advocated the acknowledgment of the South was this : I 
believed that if England and France unitedly had acknowledged the South, 
the North would have ceased to attack the South ; I was quite certain of that. 
As a statesman I answer, it is a matter which I have long considered, in which 
I had no personal interest, but in which England had great interest. I will 
tell you what England's interest is. (A voice — ' Not to acknowledge the slave 
power.') We have acknowledged the slave power ever since the United 
States were guilty. We have acknowledged it in every quarter of the globe. 
(' The more the shame.') It is all very well to say ' the more the shame,' but 
we have done it. My reason for desiring the acknowledgment of the South 
was this : I wanted the great Republic of America to be split into two. I 
honestly and openly confess it ; and if it had been so it would have been 
better for us. Now, another thing: where we have sent £2,000,000 or 
£3,000,000 of property to America during this war, if peace had come with a 
separation of the States, we should have sent £30,000,000 or £40,000,000. 
Merely looking at the matter in a pounds, shillings, and pence view, I say I 
was wise. Looking at it in a humane view, I say that the slave now is a 
miserable creature because of his emancipation. They are starving by thou- 
sands, and you are obliged to come to England and beg support for them. 
(' Slavery forever ! ' and cheers.)" ' 

It is a striking fact, certainly, that emancipation move- 
ments in the West Indies should have been contemporaneous 

' It has been stated by very high miUtary authority, that the number of 
negroes who perished during the war, and shortly afterwards, amounted to 
twenty-five per cent, of the colored population of the South, or not far from 
one million. 



NULLIFICATION IN SOUTH- CAROLINA. 89 

with Nullification in South Carolina. Before the former 
measure was completed, however, the latter movement had 
ceased, though inihappily leaving a source of discord behind 
it. It would be apart from the province of this work to dis- 
cuss the question raised by the Convention of South Caro- 
lina in any detail. The dispute originated in oi^position to 
the protective tarifi" system, which had been originally so 
much favored by her own statesmen, but who had changed 
their views fi*om convictions, that the advantages of the sys- 
tem were exclusively reaped by the Northern States, and 
that an unequal burden of taxation was thus thrown upon 
those of the South. 

They advanced the doctrine, that a State was itself the 
ultimate tribunal in controversies between itself and the 
General Government ; repudiating, therefore, that clause of 
the Constitution which provides that the judicial power shall 
extend to "all controversies to which the United States shall 
be a party." They proceeded to pronounce all acts of Con- 
gress, which imposed duties on imported goods, null and void 
within the State of South Carolina; forbade the collection of 
such duties therein; prohibited any appeal to the Supreme 
Court upon the question ; and declared that any attempt 
on the part of the United States to compel obedience would 
be deemed inconsistent with the longer continuance of 
South Carolina in the Union ; and that the people of the 
State would thereupon organize a separate and independent 
government. All the other States, by proceedings in their 
several legislatures, took action upon this threatening ques- 
tion. Virginia alone maintained those doctrines of State- 
rights, promulgated by the resolutions which her legislature 
had passed, in 1798; but despatched a commissioner' to 
South Carolina, to urge her to desist from carrying matters 
to extremities. Every other State expressed its disapproval 
of nullification ; but several denounced the protective system 
as unconstitutional and inexpedient, and others urged a 
modification of the tariff". 

' Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh. 



90 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

It was under these circumstances that Mr. Clay intro* 
duced the bill " to preserve the protective tariff for a length 
of time, and to restore good feelings and tranquillity among 
the people," which received the approval of- Mr. Calhoun 
on the part of the nullifiers, and became a law, March 2d, 
1833. It was feared by many, in consequence of the decided 
expressions of not a few of the State Legislatures, including 
that of one New England State, and from' the supposed 
views of a majority of the Congress next to assemble, that 
the manufacturing interest would be in great danger, unless 
some settlement of the question could be immediately 
effected. It was owing to this cause mainly, rather than to 
the jjosition assumed by South Carolina, that this second 
compromise of ojjiuions and feelings, due so largely to the 
influence and exertions of the great statesman of Kentucky, 
was eventually brought about. 

Mr. Clay did not escape, on this occasion, the ill chances 
of that insolent game which fortune frequently inlays against 
the best disposed arbitrators between contending parties. 
Neither of these was satisfied with the disposition of the 
question. Perhaps, the course he took deprived him of his 
prospects of election to the Chief Magistracy, which would 
have proved so eminently able and brilliant in his hands. 
But it can scarcely be imagined that any motive, except his 
profound interest in the welfare of the "American system," 
of which he had been so long the distinguished advocate, 
and which h-e believed to be in peril, could have prompted 
his efforts at this alarming jDcriod. Otherwise, notwithstand- 
ing those purely patriotic principles and feelings which gov- 
erned the conduct of his life, and led him so earnestly to 
labor for harmony between the sections, his sagacious mind 
might have conceived, that the future peace and welfare of 
the country would be best promoted by testing the point, at 
once, between the General Government and a single State 
which had ventured upon such irregular action. In that 
event, the trouble would soon have passed by, leaving only 
the benefit of a salutary example, with no worse conse- 



AEOLinOX m ENGLAISTD AND AMEKICA. 91 

queuces tlian resulted from the violent proceedings in Ken- 
tucky, in regard to the navigation of the Mississippi River, 
and the whiskey rebellion of Pennsylvania, both during 
Washington's administration; or the serious dissensions 
which distracted New England, on account of the policy 
pursued by the administrations of Jefferson and Madison, 

In 1834, aii apj^areut understanding having taken place 
between Exeter Hall and Stafford House,' on the one hand, 
and the not very conspicuous halls, which were, at that pe- 
riod, at the command of the abolitionists in this country, on 
the other, the work for a time went on without much public 
observation of the process at the North. At that time, the 
epoch of West Indian emancipation, the avowed abolitionists, 
that is, those who belonged to, or acted in cooperation with 
any anti slavery association, were few in numbers, and pos- 
sessed no ijublic influence. That coterie which Mr. Thomp- 
son intended to address in Boston was known, so far as 
known at all, by its title of " The Ladies' Autislavery So- 
ciety." There can be little doubt that the number of wo- 
men who mingled their feebleness with the originally feeble 
agitation of this subject, far exceeded that of the men. For 
it is certain that the antislavery movement, in any political 
point of view, was then, and continued to be for many suc- 
ceeding years, of the most insignificant account. It only as- 
sumed a character of any real importance when, owirtg to 
cii'cumstances in which the welfare of the negro was as little 
concerned as was that of the Camanches, politicians, who ' 
had never been thought the subjects of tenderer sensibilities, 
or the interpreters of a more scnipulous conscience than tlieir 
neighbors, found it convenient to bring into the arena of 

' From this ducal residence proceeded, some years later, the philanthropic 
movement which resulted in dispossessing the tenantry of many generations 
in the county of Sutherland, Scotland ; in order to convert the vast territorial 
domains of tlie noble proprietor into the more profitable condition of exten- 
sive sheep farms. It was in many respects a similar process to that so 
pathetically treated of in a famous work called " Goldsmith's Deserted Vil- 
lage." 



92 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAJR. 

party straggles a topic affording such ample opportunity for 
vague declamation, and which was the easiest of all to dilate 
upon by those who had little else to say. Indeed, in this re- 
spect, a round gift at scolding was all that was necessary. 

The earliest knowledge which the Northern j^ublic had 
of this extensive scheme for the reformation of the South, 
came to it in echoes fi-om the latter quarter. Certainly, at 
the outset, no open appeal had been made to the principles, 
the emotions, or the pockets of influential persons in the 
Eastern States, nor would such have stood the slightest 
chance of any favorable response; and the West was, at 
that period, almost as impervious to antislavery efforts as the 
South itself. As matters became more and more develoj)ed, 
it was evident that the agents of the movement must have 
obtained from sources outside of their own limited and far 
from opulent circle the means of carrying forward their en- 
terprise, to an extent which soon became excessively annoy- 
ing to the people of the South. Those who reflected upon 
the subject naturally looked over the water, where means 
were abundant and interests were engaged, to account foi 
the supply of funds. It was naturally thought that an un- 
dertaking of such magnitude as the conversion of the South 
to a state of Inind favorable to the sacrifice of property, 
worth, perhaps, forty times the amount paid to the West In- 
dian planters, and which involved the subversion of their 
whole agricultural system, could not have been entered upon 
by any handful of the most unreasoning of all enthusiasts, 
imless they were encouraged to proceed by means afforded 
and promised, quite apart from any resources at their OAvn 
command. 

Peter, the Hermit, had, indeed, been able, from appar- 
ently somewhat small beginnings, to preach up the Crusade. 
But he could offer the most powerful religious motives to 
kings and nations, Avhose business was arms. Like the great 
conqueror, whose followers he proposed to dislodge from the 
Holy Land, who had gathered his own forces and gained his 
victories by a similar engagement, he could promise j)aradise 



ABOLITION m THE EAST. 93 

to those wlio perished ; and considering the state of those 
times, and the habits and manners of many of those who ral- 
lied to his standard, it is probable that this motive may have 
suggested to them that this was a solitary opportunity not 
to be neglected. But the crusade against the South present- 
ed obstacles, both physical and moral, scarcely inferior ; and 
in the hands of the abolitionists alone, it would forever have 
remained of all enterprises the most absurd and hopeless. 
It would have been as if Peter himself had undertaken to 
expel the Infidel, at the head of a procession of his monks. 

The measures adopted by the combined agents of aboli- 
tion, in order to overturn the deeply rooted system of the 
slave States, necessarily required for their success either the 
willing assent of the South to the influence of argument and 
persuasion, or else the destruction of that system by force, 
which implied a revolution in the whole country through 
abrogation of the Constitution. If their earlier steps showed 
neither prudence nor knowledge of human nature, they indi- 
cated a certain degree of courage, more worthy of a crusade 
than theii" subseqiient efforts. It is certain that none of the 
known promoters of antislavery agitation ventured to set 
foot upon the territory which was proposed as the theatre of 
such a formidable conquest. In the autumn of 1829, indeed, 
Mr. Garrison became engaged in the joint conduct of a news- 
paper already published in Baltimore, which had advocated 
the cause of " universal emancipation ; " but, until then, in a 
spirit and by means really philanthropical, instead of fana- 
tical. This connection was brought to a close, in the course 
of the next year, by the prosecution and conviction of Mr. 
Garrison for a libel, whereupon he returned to Boston and 
set up the "Liberator," at the beginning of the year 1831.^ 

' Perhaps uo more accurate idea of the strength and influence of the abo- 
htion cause in Boston, several years ;ilterwards, could be formed, than from 
the reply of Mr. Harrison Gray Otis, Mayor of the city, to an appeal from the 
Mayor of Baltimore, requesting him to suppress the " Liberator," copies of 
which would, no doubt, be sent to the capital of Maryland, as fanatical and 
incendiary. Mr. Otis wrote that his " officers had ferreted out the paper and 



94' ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

The mission "vvas conducted, however, by secret emissa* 
ries, in their behalf. Persons of various professions and pur- 
suits, clergymen, colporteurs, and pedlars, insinuated them- 
selves into the South, with the purpose of taking advantage 
of whatever opportunity might present itself favorable to 
the object in view. It was very speedily ascertained that 
the most delicate suggestions, made to the owners in refer- 
ence to the subject of emancipation, involved a certain de- 
gree of danger to those who ventured to propose them. The 
masters had heard that Mr. ThomjDSon thought it right that 
the slaves should throw off their bondage by the most violent 
means,' and the idea of assassination, and the natural horrors 
of a slave insurrection, had not struck them agreeably. 
Finding little acceptance with this class, the abolition agents 
secretly turned their attention to the slaves ; but this pro- 
ceeding proved still more offensive. 

The owner of a thousand negroes, dwelling with his fam- 
ily upon an isolated plantation, who did not care to listen to 
the exhortations of a Northern abolitionist upon the wrongs 
and evils of slavery, saw still less propriety in permitting 
aj)peals to be made to the not particularly enlightened sensi- 

its editor, whose office was an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro 
boy ; his supporters a few insignificant persons of all colors." 

^ Mr. Thompson publicly denied this charge, but the following piece of 
contemporary testimony is from the Boston Atlas, of Oct. iTth, 1835 : 

" The Neio York Commercial received last evening contains a letter from 
Mr. A. Kaufman, Jr., of Andover, expressly stating that Mr. Thompson re- 
peated three or four times to him that ' every slaveholder ought to have his 
throat cut.' With regard to the character of Mr. Kaufman, and his credibility 
as a witness, the following testimony is submitted : 

" ' TnEOLOGicAL Seminaey, Andover, Oct. 12th, 1835. 
" ' Mr. A. Kaufman, the subscriber of the above declaration, is a licentiate 
preacher, having spent three years in this seminary, with a distinguished char- 
acter for talents and scholarship ; a man of integrity, worthy of trust and cre- 
dence, whose veracity is unimpeached and unimpeachable. 

" 'L. Woods. 
" ' M. Stuart. 
'"E. Emerson.' " 
These gentlemen were the eminent professors of the seminary. 



EESENTMENT OF THE SOUTH. 95 

bilities of his dependents, on this topic, Naturally enough, 
a great deal of exasperation was the consequence of the dis- 
covery that such a design was on foot. The treatment of 
those who wore suspected of an intention to tamper Avith the 
slaves was often somewhat rough; though, perhaps, not 
much more so than that to which gentlemen in England are 
subjected, on certain occasions, when guilty of nothing worse 
than an honest ambition to serve their country in the grand 
councils of the nation. At that period, at least, the Ameri- 
can people, in every part of the country, were, in general, as 
orderly as Dutchmen. Whenever an agent of the abolition 
societies was actually detected, however, in holding unlawful 
intercourse with the slaves, if he escaped with tar and feath- 
ers he was lucky; while sometimes an extemporary court 
and juiy of the vicinage heard his case summarily, and, if 
they deemed the proofs sufficient, consigned him to the next 
tree, at the end of a rope. 

These extreme proceedings were rare ; but they served 
effectually to clear the Southern country, in a short time, 
of a class of persons, who, however strong-minded, were 
not emulous of the honors of martyrdom. Indeed, their 
chance of glory was small; for, whether it indicated a 
sounder state of sentiment than at present exists, or not, 
their late excited scarcely more sympathy among peaceable 
and well-disposed persons of the North, or anywhere outside 
of their .own limited circle of adherents, than it did at the 
scene of their disasters. They were generally looked upon 
as a set of pestilent fanatics, who justly deserved their doom, 
by a wilful violation of the laws of the States, into which 
they had intruded for a malignant and seditious purpose. 

Incidents of this sort, however, were calculated to have 
their effect upon the more excitable classes of the commu- 
nity, who saw only the outrage, and made no allowance for 
the provocation. Some who had read the Constitution re- 
ferred to the clause which pi-ovides, that " the citizens of 
each State shall be entitled to all i)rivileges and immunities 
of citizens in the several States," This provision, which is, 



96 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

certainly, a very marked recognition of the rights of States, 
as well as of general citizenship, was sometimes cited in be- 
half of those excluded from the pursuit of incendiary designs 
at the South ; but surely it does not mean that the citizens 
of one State may enter another, for the purpose of setting 
on fire the dwelling-places of its inhabitants, or of doing any 
thing else whereby their property or personal safety might 
be endangered. The people of the several States are the 
sole judges of the propriety or necessity of the laws which 
they may make for the prevention of domestic mischief, so 
far as those laws are not in conflict with the Constitution of 
the United States. 

It was unfortunate that appeals were not made to the 
criminal tribunals, in all such cases as came under the stat- 
utes provided for the punishment of the offences charged; 
in conformity with the claims of justice and the nature of our 
institutions. By neglect of the salutary forms of law, an 
unfavorable impression was produced in the North, at last, 
in i-egard to the general state of Southern society : and the 
summary vengeance, which violent men occasionally took 
into their own hands, began to be thought by many charac- 
teristic of the main body of the people, in a part of the coun- 
try with which comparatively few at the North were much 
acquainted. The exclusion from the slave States of those 
suspected of being abolition emissaries was naturally made 
the most of by themselves and their associates. The clause 
.of the Constitution, just now cited, was much insisted upon; 
and it was not considered, in their own circle, that these 
persons did not appear in the slave States as citizens, but 
as enemies; and that they could scarcely claim the pro- 
tection of the Constitution, while they were engaged in the 
violation both of its whole spirit and its specific letter. 

Being thus debarred from the use of those personal influ- 
ences, upon which they had reckoned for the removal of sla- 
very from the soil of the South, the abolitionists resorted to 
other means, which might be thought to savor of disap- 
pointed, if not of vengeful feeling, on their part, rather than 



AGGKESSIOJSr ON THE SOUTH. 97 

to manifest much of the spirit of purely philanthropic action. 
The whole force of wliatcver presses were under their control 
was brought at once to bear upon the South. That quarter 
was flooded with " paper pellets of the brain." Newspapers, 
pamphlets, tracts, fairly loaded down the mails These pro- 
ductions of the antislavery imagination were by no means 
of a soothing nature. They were addressed, through the 
post-offices, to persons to whom the very name of abolition 
was about as grateful as coloquintida to the palate. Men 
who went to church, and thought they were as good Chrisr 
tians, neighbors, and citizens, as others, found themselves 
called upon to "pay the post" for broadsides, which ad- 
dressed them as tyrants and oppressors, thieves, kidnaj)pers, 
and murderers. If a planter opened a bale of goods, or a box 
of shoes, intended for the use of his negroes, and carefully in- 
spected the several articles, ten chances to one that he would 
find essays upon the wrongs and evils of slavery, or pictorial 
representations of slaves in chains, with the lash hanging 
over them, smuggled into the centre of the packages of 
cloths, or snugly tucked away in the capacious toes of the 
well-sized brogans. 

The plague became, at length, in its degree, like that of 
the swarms of frogs, and flies, and locusts. Indeed, in the 
Avild conception of the more fervid devotees of emancipation, 
the "sunny South" was likened to the land of Egypt, in 
which the children of Ham were blasphemously symbolized 
as the chosen people of the Almighty; and the new, self-dele- 
gated prophets, who were to work out their deliverance, Avith 
neither visible sign nor accredited mission, were these pre- 
sumptuous Northern agitators and pamphleteers.' 

In order to exhibit in the clearest light the state of feel- 

' It is to be remarked that, when the Almighty brought the children of 
Israel out of the house of bondage, in which they had dwelt for four hundred 
years, the purpose was not effected by breaking down the civil institutions of 
the Egyptians. He led them forth and subjected his chosen race to still se- 
verer hardships and trials in the wilderness for forty years, to fit them to enter 
into and possess the promised land. 
5 



98 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

mg wliich had been excited throughout the country by these 
incendiary proceedings, somewhat liberal extracts fi-om pub- 
lic documents of the highest authority may find here their 
appropriate place. These passages are not taken from South- 
ern sources ; but, in the one instance, from the Message of 
the President of the United States to the twenty-fourth Con- 
gress, upon its coming together, at the close of the year 
1835 ; ' and, in the other, from addresses of the governors of 
two important Northern States to their respective legislative 
assemblies, at the beginning of the year 1836. Great com- 
plaint had already been made of the obstacles to the diffusion 
of abolition newspapers and tracts, by the refusal of Southern 
postmasters to deliver them to the persons for whom they 
were designed — that is, complaint by those up the stream, 
of disturbance to the Avaters by those below. President 
Jackson, it appears, deemed the efforts to circulate such pro- 
ductions by mail an offence justly calling for penal legisla- 
tion. As he had withstood South Carolina, so now he turned 
upon the more insidious assailants of the Union at the North. 
His message thus requested the consideration of the subject 
by Congress : 

" I must also invite your attention to the painful excitements in the South 
by attempts to circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals addressed to 
the passions of slaves, in prints and in various sorts of publications, calculated 
to stimulate them to insurrection, and to jiroduce all the horrors of civil war. 
* * * It is fortunate for the country that the good sense, the generous 
feeling, and the deep-rooted attachment of the people of the non-slaveholdiug 
States to the Union and their fellow-citizens of the same blood in the South, 
have given so strong and impressive a tone to the sentiments entertained 
against the proceedings of the misguided persons who have engaged in these 
unconstitutional and wicked attempts, and especially against the emissaries from 
foreign parts, who have dared to interfere in this matter, as to authorize the 
hope that these attempts will no longer be persisted in. * * * i would, 
therefore, call the special attention of Congress to the subject, and respect- 
fully suggest the propriety of passing such a law as will prohibit, under severe 
penalties, the circulation in the Southern States, through the mail, of incen- 
diary publications, intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." 

^ December '7th. 



VIEWS OF GOVEENOR MAECY. 99 

Governor Marcy, afterwards Secretary at War ' and Sec- 
retary of State, appealed to the Legislatiire of New York, 
January, 1836, in the following forcible language: 

" A few individuals in the Middle and Eastern States, acting on mistaken 
notions of moral and religious duty, or some less justifiable principle, and dis- 
regarding the obligations which they owe to the respective governments, have 
embarked in an enterprise for abolishing domestic slavery in the Southern and 
Southwestern States. Their proceedings have caused much mischief in those 
States, and have not been entirely Ijurmless in our own. They have acquired 
too much importance by the evils which have already resulted from them, and 
by the magnitude and number of those which are likely to follow, if they are 
further persisted in, to justify me in passing them without notice. These pro- 
ceedings have not only found no favor with a vast majority of our constituents, 
but they have been generally reprobated. The public indignation which they 
have awakened has broken over the restraints of law, and led to dangerous 
tumults and commotions, which, I regret to say, were not, in all instances, re- 
pressed without the interposition of miUtary power. If we consider the excite- 
ment which already exists among our fellow-citizens on this subject, and their 
increasing repugnance to the abolition cause, we have great reason to fear that 
further efforts to sustain it will be attended, even in our own State, with still 
more dangerous disturbances of the public peace. 

" In our commercial metropolis, the abolitionists have established one of 
their principal magazines, from which they have sent their missiles of annoy- 
ance into the slaveholding States. The impression produced in those States, 
that this proceeding was encouraged by a portion of the business men of New 
York, or at least not sufficiently discouraged by them, threatened injurious 
consequences to our commerce. A proposition was made for an extensive vol- 
untary association in the South, to suspend business intercourse with our citi- 
zens. A regard for the character of our State, for the pubUc interest, for the 
preservation of peace among our citizens, as well as a due respect for the 
obligations created by our political institutions, call upon us to do what may 
be done, consistently with the great principles of civil liberty, to put an end 
to the evils which the abolitionists are bringing upon us and the whole coun- 
try. With whatever disfavor we may view the institution of domestic slavery, 
we ought not to overlook the very formidable difficulties of aboUshing it, or 
give countenance to any scheme for accomplishing this object, in violation of 

' It is the modem fashion to write Secretary of War, but the former mode 
seems more correct. At is the Latin ad ; that is, ahout^ or in relation to war. 
In the case of the other Secretaryships, as of State, the Treasury, the Navy, 
the Interior, etc., it is a thing which is spoken of; whereas, war is but a con- 
dition of affairs. 



100 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

the solemn guarantees we are under, not to interfere with the institution as it 
exists in the States. * * * 

" Slavery was not finally abolished here [New York] until 182'7. We were 
left to come to this result in our own time and manner, without any molesta- 
tion or interference from any other State. I am very sure that any intermed- 
dling with us in this matter by the citizens of other States would not have 
accelerated our measures, and might have proved mischievous. Such services, 
if they had been tendered, would have been rejected as useless, and regarded 
as an invasion of our rights. * * * 

" If the aboUtionists design to enli^ our passions in this cause, such a 
course would be worse than useless, unless it had reference to some subsequent 
action. If it is expected in this manner to influence the action of Congress, 
then they are aiming at a usurpation of power. Legislation by Congress would 
be a violation of the Constitution, by which that body exists, and to support 
which every member of it is bound by the solemn sanction of an oath. The 
powers of Congress cannot be enlarged so as to bring the subject of slavery 
within its cognizance, without the consent of the slaveholding States. * * * 
If their operations here are to inflame the fanatical zeal of emissaries, and in- 
stigate them to go on missions to the slaveholding States, there to distribute 
abohtion publications and to promulgate abolition doctrines, their success in 
this enterprise is foretold by the fate of the deluded men who have preached 
them. The moment they pass the borders of those States, and begin their 
labors, they violate the laws of the jurisdiction they have invaded, and incur 
the penalty of death, or other ignominious punishment. I can conceive no 
other object that the abolitionists can have in view, so far as they propose to 
operate here, but to embark the people of this State, imder the sanction of 
the civil authority, or with its connivance, in a crusade against the slavehold- 
ing States, for the purpose of forcing abolition upon them by violence and 
bloodshed. If such a mad project as tliis could be contemplated for a single 
moment, as a possible thing, every one must see that the first step toward its 
accomplishment would be the end of our Confederacy and the beguining of 
civil war. So far, then, as respects the people of this State, or any action that 
can emanate from them, I can discover no good that has resulted, or that can 
be reasonably expected to result from the proceedings of the abolitionists ; 
but the train of evils that must necessarily attend their onward movement is 
in number and ma^tude most appalling." 

Mr, Everett was at the same time (January, 1836) Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, and took tip the subject in a similar 
strain in his address to the Legislature, at the opening of the 
session, as follows : 

" The country has been greatly agitated during the past year in relation to 
slavery, and acts of illegal violence and outrage have grown out of the excite- 



VIEWS 'OF GOVEKNOR EVERETT. 101 

mcnt kindled on this subject in different parts of the Union, which cannot be 
too strongly deplored, or too severely condemned. In this State, and several 
of our sister States, slavery has long been held in public estimation as an evil 
of the first magnitude. It was fully abolished in this Commonwealth in the 
year 1783, by decisions of the courts of justice, and by the interpretation 
placed on the declaration of equality in the bill of rights. But it existed 
in several of the States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and 
in a greater ratio to the free population of the country than at the present 
time. It was, however, deemed a point of the highest public policy by the 
non-skveholding States, notwithstanding the existence of slavery in their sister 
States, to enter with them into the present Union on the basis of the constitu- 
tional compact. That no Union could have been formed on any other basis, 
is a fact of historical notoriety ; and is asserted m terms by General Hamilton, 
in the reported debates of the New York Convention for adopting tlie Consti- 
tution. This compact expressly recognizes the existence of slavery, and con- 
cedes to the States where it prevails the most importants rights and privileges 
connected with it. Every thing tliat tends to disturb the relations created by 
this compact is at war with its spirit ; and whatever, by direct and necessary 
operation, is calculated to excite an insurrection among the slaves, has been 
h«ld, by highly respectable legal authority, an offence against the peace of this 
Commonwealth, which may be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common law. 
Although opinions may differ on this point, it would seem the safer course, 
under the peculiar circumstances of the case, to Imitate the example of our 
fathers — the Adamses, the Hancocks, and other eminent patriots of the Revo- 
lution, who, although fresh from the battles of liberty, and approaching the 
question as essentially an open one, deemed it nevertheless expedient to enter 
into a union with our brothers of the slaveholding States, on the principles of 
forbearance and toleration on this subject. As the genius of our institutions 
and the character of our people are entirely repugnant to laws impairing the 
liberty of speech and of the press, even for the sake of repressing its abuses, 
the patriotism of aU classes of citizens must be invoked to abstain from a dis- 
cussion which, by exasperating the master, can have no other effect tlian to 
render more oppressive the condition of the slave, and which, if not aban- 
doned, there is great reason to fear will prove the rock on which the Union 
will split. Such a disastrous consummation, in addition to all its remediless 
political evils for every State in the Union, could scarcely fail, sooner or later, 
to bring on a war of extermination in the slaveholding States. On the con- 
trary, a conciUatory forbearance with regard to this subject in the non-slave- 
holding States, would strengthen the hands of a numerous class of citizens 
of the South, who desire the removal of the evil ; whose voice has often been 
heard for its aboUtion in legislative assemblies, but who are struck down and 
silenced by the agitation of the question abroad ; and it would leave the whole 
painful subject where the Constitution leaves it, witli the States where it exists, 
and in the hands of an all-wise Providence, who, in His own good time, is able 



102 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAK. 

to cause it to disappear, like the slavery of the ancient world, under the grad- 
ual operation of the gentle spirit of Christianity." 

These extracts serve to show to what lengths the aboli- 
tionists were then jDushing their designs, and the sentiments 
with which they were regarded by eminent citizens of un- 
questionable patriotism. The picture would not be complete 
without the addition of a passage from a sj^eech of Mr. Clay, 
delivered in the Senate at the same period. His vigorous 
and glowing, but unpremeditated language, forcibly portrays 
the real evil which then threatened the country ; as his saga- 
cious foresight indicated those future terrible trials and ills 
of which, if unchecked, it must prove the source ; from the 
actual sight and experience of which he and his great com- 
patriots of that earlier generation have been mercifully spared. 
With another Clay and another Webster on the floor of the 
Senate, popular delitsion might have been turned aside, be- 
fore it had overwhelmed the barriers of the Constitution, To 
the foot of which, in their day, its tide was never permitted 
to approach. In reference to the means by which the aboli- 
tionists were seeking to effect their objects, Mr. Clay re- 
marked, on the occasion alluded to : 

" Another, and much more lamentable one, is that which this class is en- 
deavoring to employ, of arraying one portion against another of the Union. 
With that view, in all their leading prints and publications, the alleged hor- 
rors of slavery are depicted in the most glowing and exaggerated colors, to 
excite the imaginations and stimulate the rage of the people of the free States 
against the people of the slaveholding States. The slaveholder is held up and 
represented as the most atrocious of human beings. Advertisements of fugi- 
tive slaves, and of slaves to be sold, are carefully collected and blazoned forth 
to infuse a spirit of detestation and hatred against one entire, and the largest, 
section of the Union. * * * Why are the slave States wantonly and 
cruelly assailed ? Why does the abolition press teem with publications tend- 
ing to excite hatred and animosity on the part of the free States against the 
slave States ? * * * Why is Congress petitioned ? What would be 
thought of the formation of societies in the slave States, the issuing of vio- 
lent and inflammatory tracts, and the deputation of missionaries, pouring out 
impassioned denunciations against institutions under the exclusive control of 
the free States ? Is their purpose to appeal to our understandings and actuate 
our humanity ? And do they expect to accomplish that purpose by holding 



ME. CLAY ON ABOLITION. 103 

us up to the scorn and contempt and detestation of the people of the free 
States and tlic whole civilized world ? * * * gjr, I am not in the habit 
of speaking lightly of the possibility of dissolving this happy Union. The 
Senate knows that I have deprecated allusions on ordinary occasions to that 
direful event. The country will testify that, if there be any thing in my 
pubhc career worthy of recollection, it is the truth and sincerity of my ardent 
devotion to its lasting preservation. But we should be false in our allegiance 
to- it if we did not discriminate between the imaginary and the real dangers 
by which it may be assailed. Abolition should no longer be regarded as an 
imaguiary danger. The aboUtionists, let me suppose, succeed in their present 
aim of uniting the inhabitants of the free States, as one man, against the in- 
habitants of the slave States. Union on the one side will beget union on the 
other. And this process of reciprocal consolidation will be attended with all 
the violent prejudices, embittered passions, and implacable animosities, which 
ever degraded or deformed human nature. A virtual dissolution of the Union 
will have taken place, while the forms of its existence remain. The most val- 
uable element of union, mutual kindness, the feehngs of sympathy, the frater- 
nal bonds which now happily unite us, will have been extinguished fq^rever. 
One section will stand in menacing, hostile array against another ; the collision 
of opinion will be quickly followed by the clash of arms." 



CHAPTER IV. 

" Aggression " against the South in Active Operation at the North for Thii-ty Years be- 
fore the War. — Resolutions of Congress, in 183G. — Action of the Legislature of Massa- 
chusetts upon the Resolutions of Five Southern States. — Conflict in Congress, in re- 
gard to Abolition Memorials, in 1837. — Its Resolution. — Remarks of Mr. Benton upon 
the Result.— The "Partisan Leader."— Mr. Van Buren.— The "21st Rule."— The 
Whig Party. — The Liberty Party. — The Shufflers among the Northern Democratic 
Leaders. 

It thus appears that an active and alarming system of 
aggression against the South was in operation at the North, 
thirty years ago, threatening to excite servile insurrection, 
to imperil union, to stir up civil war. This fact rests ujjon 
testimony which cannot but he considered both impartial 
and conclusive. Few would think of questioning the patriot- 
ism of President Jackson, whatever they might think of 
many of the measures of his administration ; no one ever 
doubted the exalted and all-embracing national spirit of Mr. 
Clay. Mr. Marcy was one of the ablest and most prominent 
leaders of the National Democratic party ; Mr. Everett held 
an equal rank among the cons|)icuous members of the Na- 
tional Whig party. The danger apprehended by them, 
however, and by other persons of sound judgment, was in 
reference to the resentment of the South, provoked, as it 
could not but be, by these continuous missiles directed 
against its domestic relations from without, and not on ac- 
count of the actual numbers of the antislavery agitators, or 
of any important influence which they could exert at home. 

But it was generally thought, upon the whole, that the 
danger was rather a matter of speculative inquiry, than of a 
nature to excite present alarm for our institutions ; and that 



ACTION OF CONGKESS. 105 

siicli a fearful contingency as truly patriotic citizens then never 
ventured to contemplate, except as remotely possible, under 
some new and terrible phase of affairs, would be, after all, 
averted by the good sense and sound feeling of the people. 
The state of sentiment in Congress, which had now been a 
good deal tried upon the subject, for several years, will ap- 
pear by the following resolutions, unanimously reported to 
the House by a committee, consisting of Messrs. Pinckney 
of South Carolina, Hamer of Ohio, Pierce of New Hamp- 
shire, Hardin of Kentucky, Jarvis of Maine, Owens of 
Georgia, Dromgoole of Virginia, and Turrill of New York, 
to which the whole matter had been referred, and which 
were adopted May 25, 1836 : 

Resolved, That Congress possesses no constitutional authority to interfere 
in any way with the institution of slavery in any of the States of this Confed- 
eracy. Yeas, 182; nays, 9. 

Resolved, That Congress ought not to interfere in any way with slavery in 
the District of Columbia. Yeas, 132 ; nays, 45. 

And whereas, It is extremely important and desirable that the agitation 
of this subject should be finally arrested, for the purpose of restoring tran- 
quillity to the public mind, your committee respectfully recommend the adop- 
tion of the following resolution : 

Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, proportions, or papers 
relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, or 
the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be 
laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon. 
Yeas, 117 ; nays, 68. 

On this occasion, Mr. J. Q. Adams attempted (out of 
order) to resist these resolutions, on general grounds, as a 
violation of the Constitution, so he alleged, and of the rules 
of the House and of the rights of his constituents ; but the 
votes show the sense of the House. 

In the Senate, during the same session of Congress, all 
papers relating to slavery were invariably laid upon the 
table. 

At this point of time an interesting spectacle was pre- 
sented by the Legislature of Massachusetts, which should be 
cited in illustration of the state of sentiment in a Ibody, 



106 OEIGm OF THE LATE "WAR. 

which has subsequently undergone such a thorough revohi- 
tion in character, but which was then composed, in general, 
of men representing the better sense and principle of the 
Commonwealth. At the opening of the session, the Gov- 
ernor, Mr. Everett, had transmitted to the legislature certain 
resolutions, which had been adopted by the several legisla- 
tive assemblies of the States of Virginia, Georgia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama, upon the subject of 
antislavery agitation. These embodied the idea contained 
in the preamble to the last resolution of the National House 
of Representatives, just cited. They had been sent to the 
Executives of all the Northern States, were couched in gen- 
erally temperate and respectful language, called attention to 
the constitutional principles upon which the Union was 
formed, and appealed to the justice and patriotic sentiment 
of the North. In correspondence with the views of Presi- 
dent Jackson, as expressed in the passage already quoted 
from his message to Congress, in some instances they re- 
quested that penal laws might be passed by the legislatures 
of the free States for the suppression of antislavery agita- 
tion. 

The resohitions, in due course of time, Avere placed in the 
hands of a joint special committee of the two Houses. The 
President of the Senate was Mr, Horace Mann, who was 
then far from having become a political abolitionist, or from 
having any apparent sympathy with abolition at all. In- 
deed, the temper of a majority of the legislators, in both 
branches, was at that time altogether opposed to the anti- 
slavery movement. The abolitionists requested a hearing, 
and sought it in a spirit of apparent humility, quite in con- 
trast with many of their more recent demonstrations. With 
considerable hesitation, since an exciting and disagreeable, 
as well as useless scene, might be the result, the committee 
finally determined to grant their request, upon the broad 
ground of allowing those who Avei'C struck at to be heard, at 
least, in their own defence. Accordingly, the meeting eventu- 
ally took place in the hall of the House of Representatives, 



A LEGISLATIVE INCIDENT. 107 

and it at once appeared, from the numbers assembled, that 
the abolitionists had summoned their adherents from far and 
near. Among other conspicuous devotees of the cause ap- 
peared Miss Harriet Martineau, then on a visit to this coun- 
try, whether in the interest of Stafford House or not, was not 
understood, or, indeed, thought of, at that time. The hear- 
ing proved to be any thing but agreeable. The demonstra- 
tion in the streets of Boston, in which Mr. Garrison had 
played so prominent a part, had taken place during the pre- 
ceding year. No opportunity had since been afforded for 
breaking a silence which must have been trying, and there 
was a great deal of pent-up matter boiling to be let out. 

Doubtless, many took an interest in the proceedings, who 
thought the general liberty of speech was in danger of being 
infringed, in a State where freedom of this sort was as uni- 
versal and untrammelled as it is possible for it to be in any 
civilized community. As evidence of it, the speakers on this 
occasion exercised a very unlimited degr-ee of free utterance. 
Their speeches were in the usual antislavery strain. They 
addressed themselves to the passions of the assembly, instead 
of speaking to the committee, and were often cliecked for 
this irregular conduct. They exhibited the usual pictures 
of men, women, and children, in chains, and subjected to the 
most cruel hardships and sufferings. Much was said which 
Avas incredible to a rational mind, and revolting to a heart 
actuated by patriotic principles and emotions. If one 
thought that the liberation of negroes from bondage were 
the paramount duty of American citizens, all this might pass 
muster ; but if he conceived himself to be under solemn obli- 
gations to the law of the land, imposing upon him duties 
with which the liberation of negroes by his own intervention 
Avas inconsistent, neither his conscience nor his feelings could 
find gratification in the fiery and irrational staple of such 
harangues. 

The committee was placed in a somewhat embarrassing 
situation. On the one hand was the grand theory of free 
speech ; on the otliei', that license which the more ardent 



108 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

abolitionists mistook for it, and which they imagined it to 
allow. Regarding all men, under all circumstances, as stand- 
ing on a perfect footing of personal equality, the radicals did 
not understand then, nor have they ever, that a principle so 
artificial in its application demanded the most entire conces- 
sion to others of all which they claimed for themselves. 
They held free speech to mean the liberty, to them, of saying 
whatever they pleased, at all times and in every situation ; 
and were not too mindful, therefore, of the ordinary rules of 
civility, or of the recognized deference due to constituted 
authorities. 

In fact, it was the spirit of radicalism, in general, which 
had incited their zeal for the cause of the negro in particular. 
At the close of the sesssion of the committee, which had been 
devoted to this hearing, an adjournment to another day was 
requested and allowed, in order to permit another series of 
speakers to present their views. This second meeting took 
place on March 9th, 1836; and it was likely enough that 
neither the committee nor the remonstrants would come to- 
gether in the very best humor with each other. The audi- 
ence was much more numerous than upon the former occa- 
sion ; in fact, the sj^acious hall of the House of liepresenta- 
tives was thronged with an eager crowd, a majority of whom 
were probably upon the abolition side. In the course of 
the proceedings, Mr. Garrison rose, in turn, to speak; and it 
may be important to state the incident which then occurred, 
since it shows the views entertained by him, and, it may be 
presumed, by his confidential associates, of that early period. 
It is believed that the following was very nearly his precise 
language, as derived from minutes taken on the spot : 

" I feel myself, Mr. Chairman, like Paul in the presence of Agrippa. They 
tell us, sir, that if we proceed in our course we shall dissolve this Union. But 
what is the Union to me ? I am a citizen of the world." 

It may be, that the chairman of the committee felt too 
much reverence for the gi'eat apostle of the Gentiles to be 
particularly pleased with Mr. Garrison's assumption in this 
respect ; and perhaps he did not much like the comparison 



A LEGISLATIVE rNdDENT. 109 

of himself to the King of Palestine. He called the speaker 
to order, and, in language certainly somewhat emphatic, a3 
appears by the same memorandum of the proceedings, ad- 
dressed him nearly as follows : 

"It must be remembered, that this is a committee of the Legislature 
of Massachusetts, all the members of which are sworn to support the 
Constitution of the State and of the United States. They cannot, therefore, 
in the way of their duty, sit to hear such sentiments as have been now 
expressed by one who acknowledges himself a traitor [meaning, by his declara- 
tion of his disregard for the Union] and an outlaw [meaning, by his statement 
that he was ' a citizen of the world,' and consequently owing no obligation to 
the laws governing the tribunal to which he now appealed]. You will please 
take your seat until I consult the committee, to learn whether they are dis- 
posed to hear you further." 

The committee decided not to hear Mr. Garrison. The 
excitement already existing among a portion of the assembly 
was considerably increased upon the announcement of this 
determination. Afterwards, numerous speakers took the 
floor, in succession, devoting many of their remarks to re- 
monstrance against the action of the committee, and evident- 
ly enjoying the agitation which had been stirred up. At 
length, several hours having been allowed, on this second as 
on the first occasion, to an unprofitable hearing, at Avhich 
nothing of impoi'tance or of novel interest had been present- 
ed, the patience of the committee was exhausted, an-d, by its 
direction, the session was fiixilly dissolved, by proclamation 
of the sergeant-at-arras. 

It will be perceived that no injustice is done Mr. Garri- 
son by this relation, since the declarations made by him at 
the time in question, are correspondent in spirit with the 
motto which he so long displayed in his paper, the Liberator : 
" The CoxsTiTUTioisr — A Covenant with Death, an Agree- 
ment with Hell." It only serves to show how early he 
avowed those principles which his compatriot, Mr. Wendell 
Phillips, at a later date, boasted had been his own also for nine- 
teen years. The transaction is of importance, in one rcsj)cct, 
us showing the sense then entertained, in regard to these 
proceedings, and upon the general subject of antislavory agi- 



110 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

tation, by the Legislature of Massachusetts, as evinced by its 
action, when the matter came under the cognizance of the 
two Houses. 

A report upon the subject of the resolves of the five 
Southern States was made by the committee to the Senate, 
which body accepted it on March 12th, 1836, and ordered 
three thousand copies to be printed.^ In the mean time, the 
remonstrants had made formal complaint to the popular 
branch of the legislature, that they had not enjoyed a suit- 
able hearing. After an animated debate in the House, on 
March 11th, that body voted by a large majority to refer the 
memorial of the abolitionists to the committee tchich, that 
docum,ent alleged, had refused to hear them. On the next 
day, this matter came up for consideration in the Senate, to 
which body a special report as to the memorial had been 
made ; and after some discussion of the question, it was also 
referred to the same committee, in concurrence. No further 
action was had upon the general subject, in deference to the 
express wishes of some very leading gentlemen in the State. 
They thought that the abolitionists had received a substan- 
tial rebuke from the legislature, and that the state of politics, 
considering that a' general election Avas to occur the next 
year, rendered it advisable to let the matter rest. Accord- 
ingly, the resolutions reported by the committee were never 
called up ; though there could be no doubt that they would 
have been adopted by the legislature ; and it may be ques- 
tionable now whether the course taken in regard to them 
was the most judicious. The chance was given up for the 
record of a just remonstrance against the proceedings of the 
abolitionists, by the legislature, in which the sentiments of 
the great body of the people of the State would at that time 
have concurred. 

Such having been the decisive action of Congress upon 
this exciting topic, and of the Legislature of Massachusetts, sit- 
ting in the capital city of New England, it might have been 

' For report, see Appendix III. 



AGITATION IN CONGRESS. Ill 

reasonably expected that the calm -winch had been apparent- 
ly restored M'onld pi-ove lasting, by the discouragement thus 
given to the popular elements of discord. But the contest 
was renewed in Congress, during the next year, proceeding 
from a Northern quarter, and rose at once to a pitch of un- 
precedented fury. The twenty-fourth Congress, in May, 
1836, had adopted the resolutions already cited on a preced- 
ing page.' The twenty-fifth Congress came together, in ex- 
tra session, September 4th, 1837. The merely legal right of the 
latter body to take action upon any subject, in contravention 
of the deliberate sense of its predecessor, is indis23utable. A 
nation may hold a treaty with another jjower no longer 
binding ; but there should be some novel cause to warrant a 
breach of the obligation. The points comprehended within 
the scope of those resolutions were not of ordinary legisla- 
tive jurisdiction, and had been agreed upon for the purpose 
of composing national differences, and for preventing discus- 
sions, which could promote no good end, in the somewhat 
excitable arena of the floor of the House. They could be 
properly disturbed only on the highest grounds of ex- 
pediency. 

Looking at the matter with calm judgment, and esjjecially 
in the light of subsequent events, it may be held certain, 
that the moral obligation to maintain the existing state of 
things was sufficient to counterbalance all other considera- 
tions. A large majority of the House eventually so decided ; 
but it Avas only after the conflict of antagonistic views and 
feelings, which left many unhappy traces behind it. Pos- 
sibly, if some of the members had thought more of their 
duty to the nation at large, than of securing support for 
themselves fi'om a faction at home, which grew by their 
countenance and was beginning to eat into t^e vitals of the 
country, the direct evils to which it has been subjected might 
not have befallen it, at a later day. The movement in Con- 
gress was made December 20th, 1837, by a member of t^e 

' Page 105. 



112 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

House from Vermont. He presented two petitions asking 
for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and' 
moved their reference to 'a select committee, of which, ac- 
cording to ordinary custom, he would himself be chaii-man, 
and would thus obtain the opportunity of making, at least, 
a formal minority report. Mr. Benton thus describes the 
occasion and the commencement of the conflict which forth- 
with ensued : 

" The immediate occasion of this contest was the pertinacious effort of 
Mr, Slade, of Vermont, to malce the presentation of abolition petitions the 
gromid of agitation and action against the institution of slavery in the South- 
ern States. Mr. Slade had moved to refer the resolutions presented by him 
to a select committee, with instructions to report upon them. Upon mak- 
ing this motion, he commenced a violent assault upon the institution of 
slavery." * 

The member from Vermont was speedily called to order, 
but persisted in jDursuing a course of remark which was ex- 
ceedingly offensive to a numerous body of the members, and 
not agreeable, certainly, to the sense of a majority of the 
House, as became sufliciently apparent in the end. An ex- 
traordinary scene of tumult and confusion followed. Mem- 
bers gathered in knots, and in a state of extreme excitement 
discussed the several points at issue, among themselves. At 
times, it was impossible for the Speaker to preserve any sem- 
blance of order. That officer, temporarily in the chair, was 
Mr. White, of Kentucky, who appears to have discharged 
his duty, on a difiicult occasion, with no little impartiality. 
Whether heard or unheard, Mr. Slade showed no inclination 
to discontinue his speech, but proceeded in his remarks at 
great length. A variety of motions had been made, for the 
purpose of checking him, in mid-volley ; but in such a state 
of excitement, they were not chosen with judgment, or in 
conformity with the rules of the House ; and the Speaker 
had re^jeatedly decided against them, affording Mr. Slade 
Avhatever opportunity existed, amid such a turmoil, to set off 
anew, after a momentary lull in the storm. 

' " Thirty Tears' View." 



INCONSISTENCY OF ME. ADAMS. 113 

- At length, a memlber from North Carolina hit upon the 
expedient which brought affairs to a crisis by suggesting 
that, according to the rule of the House, when a member 
Avas called to order he should take his seat, and if the decis- 
ion made him out of order, he could not be allowed to speak 
again without the leave of the House. In the midst of re- 
newed uproar, the Speaker found it difficult to make known 
las determination upon the point ; but finally read the rule 
from the Manual, and directed Mr. Slade to be seated. That 
member still demanded leave to proceed ; but thereupon an 
adjournment was moved, and there proved to be 116 ayes 
to 63 nays • between fifty and sixty members having pre- 
viously withdrawn from a scene which must have been far 
from agreeable to quiet men. 

In this way, for the first time in Congress, broke out an 
open and violent conflict, on the topic of slavery, in which 
passion took away the control from reason and moderation. 
A meeting of the Southern members was held immediately 
after the adjournment; which it is unnecessary to notice, 
except as an early display of deplorable alienation between 
the North and the South in the National Legislature, result- 
ing from the countenance afforded to Mr. Slade by the mi- 
nority of the House. But although extreme councils found 
warm advocates at the meeting, they did not finally prevail. 
It was determined that the subjoined resolution should be 
offered in the House on the following morning : 

Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, and papers, touching the abolitiou 
of slavery, or the buying, selhng, or transferring of slaves, in any State, Dis- 
trict^ or Territory of the United States, be laid on the table, without bemg de- 
bated, printed, read, or referred, and that no further action whatever shall be 
had thereon. 

The resolution having been read -by the member from 
Virginia, to whom it had been intrusted, objection was made 
to its reception by Mr. John Quincy Adams, on behalf of 
those who then acted with him. His procedure may seem, 
perhaps, somewhat singular and inconsistent, since the 
ground taken by Mr. Adams and his associates was in oppo- 



114 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

sition to that of those who objected to the reception of certain 
papers sent to the House from the North, by persons who 
were not members. But here he proposed to refuse even a 
hearing to a resolution presented, on the part of the South, 
by a member of the very body which he was contending 
ought to vindicate and uphold the rights of free speech ! 
In order to obtain leave to submit tbe resolution in ques- 
tion, a vote of two-thirds, for the suspension of the rules, 
was necessary. Upon putting this point to the trial, the 
result stood — yeas, 135 ; nays, 63 ; which was more than 
sufficient. Some further disorder occurred upon bringing 
the resolution to final determination, but it was ultimately 
adopted by a vote of 122 yeas to 74 nays. 

Mr. Benton's remarks upon these transactions and their 
result give an idea of the extent' to which the antislavery 
agitators had carried out their design to promote discord in 
Congress, and, by consequence, in the nation ; and of the im- 
pression which the spirit manifested by them made upon 
well-disj)Osed persons who did not sympathize with their 
doings. For it could scarcely be considered any thing but 
faction, bent upon mischief, which would seek to force upon 
a reluctant Congress the discussion of antislavery topics, 
under whatever specious guise they were presented. Mr. 
Benton says : 

" Thus were stifled, and in future prevented in the House, the inflammatory 
debates upon these disturbing petitions. It was the great session of their 
presentation, being ofi'ered by hundreds, and signed by hundreds of thousands 
of persons — ^many of them women, who forgot their sex and their duties to 
mingle in such inflammatory work ; some of them clergymen, who forgot their 
mission of peace to stir up strife among those who should be brethren. It 
was a portentous contest. The motion of Mr. Slade was not for any inquiry 
into the expediency of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia (a mo- 
tion in itself sufficiently inflammatory), but to get the command of the House 
and bring in a bill for that purpose, which would be a decisio"n of the question. 
This motion failed." ' 

Slavery was not, in fact,, declared to be abolished in the 
District until the year 1863, almost a generation later than 

* " Thirty Tears' View." 



AUGURY OF MK. VAJST BUEEn's COURSE. 115 

the period of the events just detailed. A few days after the 
disposition made of Mr. Slade's memorials, Mr. Calhoun 
introduced into the Senate a series of famous resolutions, in 
reference to the general subject, which, as amended on 
motion of Mr. Clay, were adopted by a very large majority 
of that body,' 

The outbreak, occasioned by this attempt of Mr. Slade to 
convert the House into an ai'ena for a battle-royal on the 
subject of slavery, had resulted in the adoption of the reso- 
lution quoted on a preceding page.' The Senate had pursued 
a similar course, for the two previous sessions of that body, 
and adhered to it until the period of actual secession had 
made it an open field for any disposition of the topic which 
might be acceptable to the Northern majority. For several 
years after this correspondent action of the two Houses, they 
enjoyed a partial, though by no means a complete immunity 
from abolition memorials; since little encouragement re- 
mained for vigorous effort in procuring signatures to peti- 
tions to a national assembly, which had predetermined to 
treat them with entii-e neglect. It is a little singular, that 
at this time was written by a Virginian author, and printed, 
though not i^ublished for more than twenty years afterwards, 
a work of fiction, called " The Partisan Leader," in which 
the overthrow of the Government by Mr. Van Buren, then 
President, was depicted, his own assumption of the style of 
Emperor, in the interest of the abolition party, and the oc- 
currence of civil war; but the events imagined were on a 
much inferior scale to those which subsequently took place. 
As a work of art, the book is of slight consequence ; nor, 
although within its scope the details of events in the novel 
are not dissimilar to some of those which time has actually 
unfolded, is the story worthy of much attention, since the 
record of facts in the experience of the country goes so far 
beyond every thing which it was possible for imagination to 
conceive. Its chief title to notice now is derived from its 
suppression at the time, clearly on party grounds ; from the 

' Appendix IV, " Page 113, 



116 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

fact that Mr. Van Buren receiyed and accepted the nomina- 
tion of the abolition party for President* in 1848 ; * and from 
the conduct of not a few of the leading supporters of his ad- 
ministration, in connection with the causes of the .war, and 
with its history, after it actually broke out. 

In 1838, however, the Legislature of the State of Vermont 
saw fit to pass certain resolutions for the consideration of 
Congress, in favor of the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, which were presented in the Senate by one of 
the members from that State. These resolutions Avere very 
much comj)lained about Ijy the Southern Senators, particu- 
larly by Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, as bringing charges 
of "immorality and irreligion" against the people of the 
South, in general ; though it would seem, from the course of 
the debate, that these charges were contained in a resolution 
which had passed the lower branch of the Vermont Legisla- 
ture only, and which, therefore, had no more official sanction 
than if acted upon by any ordinary assembly of citizens. 
The resolutions Avere laid upon the table, in the usual coui'se 
of proceedings. 

The annexation of the Republic of Texas to the United 
States had now become a subject of contemplation, and occa- 
sionally of discussion by the public press. Doubtless the pro- 
ject was conceived for the purpose of strengthening the 
political power of the South, which hatl been so long sub- 
jected to such various assaults, by direct or indirect appeals 
to Congress from many quarters. Certainly, in the state of 

' The party which nominated Van Buren is properly styled " abolition," 
though it professed obedience to the General Government, and resolved, there- 
upon, that " "We, therefore, propose no interference by Congress with slavery 
within the limits of any State." But its final resolution reads : 

Jtesolved, That we inscribe on our banners free soil, free speech, free labor, 
and free men ; and under it will fight on, and fight ever, until a triumphant 
victory shall reward our exertions. 

Mr. Salmon P. Chase was chairman of a Committee of Conference ap- 
pointed by this Convention, and the nomination of Van Buren was reported 
by Mr. Joshua Leavitt, editor of the Emancipator, a paper published in 
Boston. 



APPREHENSIONS OF THE SOUTH. IIY 

the public mind, at that period, and long afterwai'ds, no real 
danger exig^ted of interference Avith slavery in the States ; 
and the long-delayed action of a triumphant Republican 
majority in Congress, after the election of Lincoln, upon the 
question of abolishing slavery in the District- of Columbia, 
indicates clearly enough, that, so long as the expectation of 
the return of the seceded States to the Union in their original 
relations was entertained, little apprehension need have been 
felt on that particular jjoint. 

It was evident, however, that the safety of the South 
depended upon the just consideration of the North, which, in 
the ordinary course of events, was acquiring a great superior- 
ity of population. There was a constant accession of free 
States to the Union, and the balance of power had been for 
sometime steadily passing into the possession of a part of 
the country which Avas, at least, strongly divided on the sub- 
ject of abolition. It did not tend to quiet the alarm of 
Southern statesmen, that the warmest Northern supporters 
of the Union seldom alluded to the subject of slavery, with- 
out putting in a caveat, to satisfy their hearers that they 
regarded it as a moral and political evil, and that such reluc- 
tant countenance as they rendered to the institution was 
given simply in deference to the requirements of the Consti- 
tution. 

There can be no doubt that this state of the. case kept the 
minds of thoughtful Southern men in a condition of nervous 
agitation, and that they came together in Congress with a 
constant dread of a Northern majority which might be in- 
duced to attack their rights and endanger their security. In 
this view of the matter, in January, 1840, upon a motion for 
some amendment of the rules of the House of Representa- 
tives, Mr. Cost Johnson, of Maryland, proposed the follow- 
ing, which soon became well known as the " twenty-first rule," 
and was adopted by a vote of 114 yeas, to 108 nays : 

" No petition, memorial, resolution, or other paper, praying the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia, or any State or Territory, or the 
elave trade between the States and the Territories of the United States iu 



I 



118 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

which it now exists, shall be received by this House, or entertained in any 
way whatever." 

Substantially, the same principle had been already adopted 
by both branches of the National Legislature. The only real 
difference between this rule and the resolution of the House, 
in 1836, correspondent with the previous action of the Senate^ 
was, that the resolution provided for laying such papers on 
the table, while the rule refused to receive them at all ; but 
was equivalent, in effect, to the course of proceeding already 
in practice. This rule, however, was the occasion of great 
prejudice, and became the ready means of increasing and 
intensifying antislavery agitation. 

Amongst other indications of Northern dissatisfaction, 
was an attempt made in the Legislature of Massachusetts, in 
the year 1840, to relieve the negro of certain social disabili- 
ties, which had long denoted, in that State, a more marked 
distinction between the races than had existed, perhaps, in 
any other State of the Union. In the year 1705, during the 
reign of Queen Anne, a provincial statute had been passed, 
of the following tenor : 

" None of her Majesty's English or Scotch subjects, nor of any other 
Christian nation, shall contract matrimony with any negro or mulatto." 

It is evident from the phraseology of this statute, that 
negroes and their offspring were regarded in the Puritan 
Commonwealth as neither more nor less than heathen ; and, 
as religion then exerted a powerful influence in political and 
social affairs, such a mixture of races was looked upon much 
as idolatry would have been, or any vicious and depraved 
degradation of the accountable human being to the base uses 
of merely sensual indulgence. By the State law of 1786, 
Indians were also included within the forbidden limits. This 
law was reaffirmed by the Revised Statutes, passed in 1836, 
and the issue of marriages between whites and negroes, 
mulattoes and Indians, was declared illegitimate. So that, 
for a hundred and thirty years, the people of Massachusetts 
had kept in force a penal statute against an intermixture of 



MAEEIAGE OF "WHITES WITH c'oLOEED PERSONS. 119 

races, which they regarded as contrary to good morals, and 
with the evident design of interposing a safeguard against 
any casual tendency to the deterioration of the superior 
species. 

In the year 1840, upon a petition j^resented to the legisla- 
ture for the repeal of this statute, the matter was referred 
to a committee, which rejiorted favorably, but the bill was 
voted down. The measure was brought forward again, by 
the same process, in the legislature of 1841, and, after an ani- 
mated debate, was decisively defeated in the House. The 
argument generally urged by the advocates of the repeal 
was, that the statute was practically useless, since few or 
none would be inclined to contract marriages ordinarily so 
repulsive. On the other hand, it may be said that compara- 
tively few persons actually commit murder, or any of the 
higher class of crimes ; yet every moral and social consider- 
ation requires that the warning and the j>enalty, in such 
cases, should be provided by the law. On one of the occa- 
sions referred to, the petition for the repeal of the statute 
was subscribed by more than five thousand males and a not 
much less number of the more delicate sex. There could be 
no doubt that it was a movement of the abolitionists, and 
designed to break down the most conspicuous barrier which 
could have been raised to denote the generally admitted in- 
equality between the several races in question. 

It is a striking fact, whatever the inference may be, that 
this object was efiected in the year 1843, when Massachusetts ^ 
had elected one of the Democratic party for Governor, and a 
majority of Democrats to both branches of its legislature. 
Doubtless, this result was due, in part, to the strongly inti- 
mated abolition opinions of Governor Morton, and . to his 
exti-emely liberal sentiments upon the subject of equal rights, 
as expressed in his inaugural address to the legislature ; but 
even more than this to the anomalous situation in which the 
two chief political parties had recently been placed. The 
Governor, in addressing the General Court of Massachusetts, 
which could do nothing, and was ])ound to do nothing, in 



120 OKiam of the late wae, 

regard to slavery, had seen fit somewhat rhetorically to 

say : 

" While some are rejoicing ia freedom, others bow under the oppressor's 
yoke, or reluctantly submit to the despot's chain. Can such a state of civil 
society be in harmony with the will of Him who created us all of one flesh and 
blood ? Does it not cry for melioration ? " 

On the same occasion, the Chief Magistrate of the Com- 
monwealth advanced the following remarkable doctrines iu 
favor of almost ixniversal suffrage : 

" I hold that every man has a natural right to a voice, and an equal voice, 
iu the government under which he lives — a voice which, like other essential 
rights, "he may forfeit by his own misconduct, but of which he cannot right- 
fully be deprived without his fault. Tliat right is not derived from the Gov- 
ernment. It cannot be bought of it by the payment of a price ; nor can it 
be withheld by an omission to call for, or a refusal to receive money. Every 
man, whether he pays taxes or not, owes duties to the Government over him ; 
is entitled to protection from it ; is bound by its decrees, and has a right to be 
heard in making them." ' 

Under the influence of teachings like these, it was no 
wonder, perhaps, that a legislative assembly, composed mainly 
of "unterrified" Democrats, who claimed for themselves, 
individually and collectively, no stinted liberty of thought 
and action, should be obedient to recommendations proceed- 
ing from so high a quarter. Accordingly, tliey hastened to 
do all they could for the cause of universal equality, by re- 
pealing the act which forbade the marriage of whites with 
negroes, mulattoes, and Indians. 

The truth is, that the great Whig party had inherited 
from its predecessors of earlier times and other names, and 
had often reafiirmed, a set of doctrines on the subject of 
slavery, in general, which rendered their position in this re- 

' In his address to the legislature of 1840, Governor Morton had laid down 
this doctrine stUl more broadly. He then remarked (and it may be, at least, 
questioned whether the " virtue of an if" here is not on the same footing as 
that of perhaps) : " If the I'ight of self-government, the right of suffrage, be a 
natural one, belonging to every rational human being, there can be no just 
cause for depriving any citizen of it, except, perhaps, as a punishment for 
crime." 



HOW " LIBERTY PAETY " MEN KEGAEDED WHIGS. 121 

spcct impregnable, and occasionally an object of envy to 
their fellow-citizens — the Democrats — as a political party. 
Their axioms were, that they had no right to interfere with 
slavery in the States, in any way whatever ; that it was in- 
expedient, if not inequitable, to take any action upon slavery 
in the District of Columbia ; but that they had a clear right 
to oppose, and were honestly bound to oppose, the^ introduc- 
tion of slavery into any territory of the United States al- 
ready free. Tliey stood before the country, therefore, first, 
upon the plain principles of the Constitution, and next, upon 
their views of the demands of justice and sound policy. 

These were the principles often held up and advocated, 
with coDf3ummate ability and eloquence by their great lead- 
ers, Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay, and were assented to, in 
general, by the chiefs and adherents of the party, in the 
South as well as in the North. The Democratic party in the 
South entertained other opinions than these, in regard to the 
territories, while in the North that party was by no means 
united in sentiment on the subject. The "Whigs, occupying 
an entirely definite position in this resj^ect, were cordially 
hated by the abolitionists, who could expect nothing favora- 
ble to their purposes from men who stood firmly pledged to 
the principles of the Constitution. As evidence of the sen- 
timents with which the Whigs of that day were regarded 
by the " Liberty Party " men, of the same period, to whose 
instrumentality the Republican organization at lengtb owed 
its origin, the extract given below, from the Boston Atlas, 
of December Vth, 1844, will be deemed of value. This pas- 
sage is quoted from a letter Avritten by the editor of the Al- 
bany WeeJcly Patriot, and was published in the Boston 
Emancipator, a paper edited by Mr. Joshua LeaA'itt, already 
mentioned in connection with the Buffalo Convention which 
nominated Mr. Van Buren in 1848. It runs as follows, the 
Whig party being thus specifically proscribed by it : 

" Uenceforth, the Liberty party is its enemy forever, and the complete and 
full separation from its aims, its purposes, its political economy, its measures, 
6 



122 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAB. 

and its men, is what, in my opinion, is necessary to the self-preservation, the 
growth, and the ultimate success of the Liberty party." 

It is a great pity, and was, indeed, a fatal mistake, that 
the Whig party did not steadily persevere, to the end, in ^ 
justifying this dislike. They stood, as has been already re- 
marked, upon an impregnable foundation, and needed only 
to be true to their principles and to themselves, to hold the 
destinies of the country in their hands. The Liberty party, 
it is true, helped to defeat Mr. Clay, in 1844, by means of the 
few Azotes which they were able to cast for their candidate, 
Mr. Birney, in New York. This diversion of force to a third 
party candidate, which, if the Liberty party men had been 
honest in their professions of support to the Constitution, 
would have been certain for Mr. Clay, gave the thirty-six 
electoral votes of New York to the Democrats, and secured 
the election of Mr. Polk. 

The Liberty party, therefore, refused their support to a 
Whig candidate from a slave State, who entertained the 
most rational and humane views on the subject of slavery; 
and wilfully promoted the election of a Democratic candi- 
date from another slave State, who was thoroughly imbued 
with the most extreme Southern opinions on the same sub- 
ject.^ The j^tlas of the same date says of the Emancipator, 

' The electoral vote stood: for Polk, IVO; for Clay, 105. With the 36 
of New York, Clay would have had 141, to 134 for Polk. The popular vote 
in that State was : for Polk, 237,588 ; for Clay, 232,4'73 ; for Birney, 15,812. 
Less than half of the latter given to the Whig candidate would have elected 
a President whose administration would have been brilUant beyond example ; 
which would have drawn to it the ablest men in the country, and which would 
have served as a much-needed guide to the people in the elucidation and rees- 
t'lblishment of constitutional principles. 

Mr. Clay was President of the Colonization Society, under the auspices of 
which the flourishing and valuable colony of Liberia, in Africa, was established, 
and has been brought forward to the excellent condition it has maintained for 
years. The abolitionists were always the fiercest opponents of colonization. 
The practical improvement of the negro, in his native country, did not suit them 
so well as the impracticable idea of equalizing black men with white in a strange 
land. It was this same*" better-to-reign-iu-hell " spirit which induced the Free 
Soilers to coalesce with the Democrats against the Whigs in 1851. 



COMPAEISON OF VOTES. 123 

that it is " a paper which has contributed more to the elec- 
tion of Polk than any other Locofoco paper in the coun- 
try." There was nothing whatever gained to the cause of 
liberty, or to any other useful object, by the factious conduct 
of the third party of that day, which then became, for the 
first time, recognized as a political organisation ; though in 
1840, about seven thousand votes had been cast for Mi\ Birney, 
who was again their candidate in 1844. 

But from the election of Mr. Polk, an event procured 
directly by their means, proceeded the Mexican war, the an- 
nexation of Texas, the embitterment of the sectional conflict, 
and the long train of evils which has since ensued. Yet 
the history of the two national elections which immediately 
followed upon that of Mr. Polk shows clearly enough, that 
their power, though able in that instance to work such a be- 
ginning of mischief, was yet extremely limited ; and through 
judicious action by the two great parties, it might soon have 
become as insignificant as the influence of the abolitionists 
themselves. In 1844, their vote amounted to 62,300, out of 
an entire vote of 2,698,605. In 1848, when General Taylor 
was elected by the Whig party, though Ex-President Van 
Buren had consented to become the candidate of the Liberty 
men, and they were aided by all the discontent to which the 
Texan question had given rise, they obtained 291,263 votes, 
in a popular vote exceeding that of the preceding occasion 
by about 174,000. In 1852, when the general public mind 
had settled down into contentment with the comj)romise 
measures of 1850, and General Pierce was chosen by the 
Democrats, aided by not a few Whigs, who believed that 
the internal peace of the country would be most surely ren- 
dered permanent by the election of a member of the other 
party, the vote of the Liberty faction for their candidate, 
Mr. John P. Hale, fell off to 155,825, although the popular 
vote had increased to 3,143,679. 

But if the Whigs had afterwards stood firmly to their 
original principles, instead of making gradual concessions to 
a party, whose agents had declared that its self-preservation 



124 - OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

clej)encled upon nncompromising hostility to themselves, they 
might easily have regained the power which the Liberty 
party built up upon their self-s'ought ruin, and the country 
would have been saved from the incomparable ills with which 
it has been and is likely long to be afflicted. 

A wide field was thus left open for such Northern Demo- 
cratic politicians as preferred personal advantage to jDublic 
principle ; so that, by truckling to local prejudice, they might 
win votes for themselves, and sell their country to a faction. 
At a later period, it became more or less of a political scram- 
ble between the two parties for the favor of a class of men 
actuated by no sentiments of patriotism, and whom both 
should have been ashamed to court. In the end, the posi- 
tion of afiairs was substantially reversed. The Northern 
Democrats, losing by desertion not a few of their conspic- 
uous leaders, showed themselves, in the main, the defenders 
of the Constitution ; while the masses of the Northern Whigs 
became entangled in the fatal meshes of sectionalism, leav- 
ing their more honorable chiefs, who had vainly striven to 
avert the current of demoralization, to struggle in vain, or 
to stand aloof from a controversy, in the issue of which they 
believed they saw the ruin of their free institutions. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Political Canvass of 1S40.— The Whig Party Success.— A Whig Governor's Abolition 
Address to the Massachusetts Legislature, iu 1844. — Eevolutionary Resolutions of tho 
same Legislature, their Presentation in Congress, and the Disposition made of them. 
— Eesolutions of United States House of Eepreseutatives. — Appointment of a Massa- 
chusetts Commissioner to Charleston, South Carolina, and his Eeception. — Its Effect. 
— The Expediency of the Measure considered.— Eepeal of the " 21st Eule." — The 
Texas Question. — The State of Parties. — Dissolution menaced by the Legislature of 
Massachusetts, in 1845. ........ 

In the political canvass of 1840, the Whigs had appai-- 
ently achieved a signal victory over their Democratic oiipo- 
nents. The administration of Mr. Van Buren had become 
extremely nupoimlar, by a course of policy injuriously affect- 
ing the commercial interests of the country. The sufferings 
and dissatisfactions were shared though in unequal propor- 
tions, by men in business who had acted with both parties. 
When Mr. Van Buren was elected in 1836, a comparatively 
small popular A^ote had been cast, for it was generally held 
certain that he would come in, upon " the footsteps of his 
illustrious predecessor." He then received 1*70 electoral 
votes, against 73 given for General Harrison. In 1840, al- 
though the contest was warm, and a very largely increased 
popular vote was cast, on both sides, the electoral ballot 
stood for Harrison 234, for Van Buren 60. On the former 
occasion, Van Buren had the majority" in fifteen States and 
Harrison in seven ; at the later election, nineteen States chose 
electors for Harrison, and seven only chose electors for Van 
Buren. 

The victory was fully anticipated, and the Whigs had 
the opportunity presented, in their Convention, of making 



126 ORIGIN OF THE LATE "VVAJR. 

the most of the favorable time, by selecting one of the two 
most eminent statesmen of their party, Webster or Clay, for 
their candidate. If the conflict between the rival preten- 
sions of those great citizens had been disregarded, and either 
of them had been nominated for the Presidency, it is prob- 
able that the election would have been equally safe, in the 
temper of the popular mind, though perhaps not equally de- 
cisive ; but the result would have given an entirely different 
turn to the course of public events. A defeat, in a contest 
of principles, would have been far preferable, and far more 
salutary in its future consequences, than such a short-lived 
triumph, achieved upon doctrines of expediency, and followed 
by complications and general public confusion, which subse- 
quent events turned into the sources of absolute disaster. A 
gentleman of more sterling worth than General Plarrison 
could not have been fixed upon ; but he was at a very ad- 
vanced period of life, and though certainly distinguished by 
more than usual ability and much public service, was se- 
lected rather as being unobjectionable, and in order to make 
the victory sure, than in reference to any special individual 
claims for a place of such dignity and responsibility. Mr. 
Tyler, who succeeded him, when the brief month of life per- 
mitted to President Harrison after his inauguration, was gone, 
had been a member of the Democratic party, was in attend- 
ance upon the Whig Convention as a recent convert, and was 
good-naturedly nominated for the Vice-Presidency, in the 
huri'v of the occasion, and upon tlie refusal of others who 
had been thought of to occupy that position. Nothing 
could have been more injudicious than the conduct of the 
Whigs, in both instances. President Harrison, verging upon 
seventy years of age, speedily sank under the burdens of 
office ; and Mr. Tyler, long balancing between his present 
and his former political associations, at length yielded to the 
latter. Hence, the Whig party lost altogether the fruits of 
a victory, which had been hailed with unexampled exulta- 
tion as a pledge of the renovated fortunes of the country. 
The disappointment was keenly felt ; but the false step Avas 



THE DECLARATION OF ESDEPENDENCE. 127 

productive of many future evil consequences. JVIore than 
ever before, politics, instead of serving as the exj^ression of 
true patriotism, was fast sinking into a game of adventurers 
and mere self-seekers. 

At the beginning of the session of the Massachusetts 
Legislature, in 1844, that body had hastened to follow the 
example of Vermont ; but far exceeded the action of that 
State, by passing resolutions to be oifered to Congress of a 
decidedly revolutionary character. In his inaugural address, 
delivered January 10th, 1844, the Whig Governor, Briggs, 
seems to have determined not to be outdone by his Demo- 
cratic predecessor. He also must needs bring up the vexed 
question of slavery. He remarked to the tAvo Houses : 

"Indeed, there is reason to believe that before the existence of our Con- 
Btitution, our liigliest court held the opinion that the Declaration of Independ- 
ence put an end to slavery in this State." 

Without staying to inquire, upon so loose a statement as 
this, whether it is conceivable that a highly respectable tri- 
bunal can have held, that the expression of any mere general 
declaratory opinion, by a convention of delegates of inde- 
pendent and sovereign States, can have had the legal effect 
. of annulling the laws of those States — it may be remarked 
that such a view is totally inconsistent with the Articles of 
Confederation, agreed upon tAvo years after the Declaration 
was issued, and with the Constitution of the United States, 
as finally adopted.^ Of course, if that Declaration, the ob- 
ject of which was simply to dissolve the bonds of allegiance 
of the colonies to Great Britain, could put an end to slavery 
in one State, it would have the same effect in all ; and hence 
the Constitution of the United States would rest under the 

' Not to cite other clauses of the Articles of Confederation, the second 
Article is sufficient, namely : 

" Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every 
power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by this Confederation expressly del- 
egated to the United States in Congress assembled." 

The Constitution, by Article IV., section 2, provides for the delivery of per- 
Bons held to service or labor. 



128 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

imputation of establishing slavery anew in all the States, 
elsewhere than in Massachusetts, instead of merely recog- 
nizinof it as an existing fact in the States where it was to be 
found. 

The Governor, however, having thus stated his case, pro- 
ceeded to reason upon it, as if it were certain that the court 
held such an opinion ; and as if the opinion would be of any 
value, if so held ; and to deduce from it conclusions scarcely 
to be accounted logical. He said : 

" With this fact in relation to slaves and slavery, in her own history, can it 
be a matter of surprise to any one that the people at home, and their repre- 
sentatives in the Federal Government, should feel bound, by every considera- 
tion of justice and humanity, to oppose the least extension of an institution 
which they believe to be morally and politically wrong, and to exert every 
power consistent with their constitutional obligations to the Union to hasten 
the time when every hioman being in this Eepublic shall enjoy 'the inalien- 
able right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ? ' " 

This was rank abolition. It does not seem to follow ne- 
cessarily from the supposed fact, that the highest court of 
Massachusetts had held slavery abolished in that State by 
the Declaration of Independence, that it became, therefore, 
the bounden duty of its people to exert themselves for its 
abolition in other States ; the highest courts of which had 
rfot so decided, and in which the Constitution of the United 
'States had left the institution standing. The abolitionists 
proper had by this time seen that tlie Constitution presented 
an insuperable obstacle to emancipation ; and they character- 
ized that instrument, therefore, as " a covenant with death — 
an agreement with hell." The Governor held that every ex- 
ertion should be made, consistent with constitutional obliga- 
tions, to hasten the time of universal emancipation ; when, in 
fact, no exertion whatever could be made to that end, in the 
United States, which would not necessarily be in direct dero- 
gation of constitutional obligations. 

The effect of the Governor's recommendations appeared 
speedily in the passage of the resolutions referred to, which 
were approved January 16th, 1844, only six days after the 



DISTUKBING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE GOVEENMENT. 129 

delivery of the inaugural address, and forming the earliest 
of the series of resolutions adopted at that session of the 
General Court. Equal alacrity was shown in the speed with 
which the resolves were forwarded to Washington. Mr. Bates, 
of Massachusetts, presented them in the Senate, January 23d, 
1844, and it appeared that they instructed the Senators and 
requested the Representatives of the State to seek for such 
an amendment of the Constitution as would allow only free 
persons to be represented ; or, in other words, to annul the 
constitutional provision for the representation of a quota of 
the slave j^opulation. The legislature had not yet reached 
the point of asking that negroes in slavery might vote ; biit 
they sought to weaken the political influence of the slave 
States by depriving them of a part of their representation 
based on two-fifths of their slave poj)ulation, for which they 
were liable to taxation, as for property, by the provision of 
the Constitution, 

Mr. King, of Alabama, who had previously acted as Pres- 
ident of the Senate, during three several Congresses, but 
was now upon the floor, and who had shown more than or- 
dinary moderation when questions of this sort had come up 
in that branch of Congress, expressed his regret that a propo- 
sition should thus come from Massachusetts to dissolve the 
Union. Remarks were also made by other members ; and 
Mr. Bates rej^lied, that he felt it his duty to present the reso- 
lutions, but he wished to avoid, instead of beginning discus- 
sion on this subject, and moved that they be laid on the table 
and be printed. The Senate agreed to the first part of his 
motion, but refused to print, by a vote of ]4 yeas to 26 nays. 

On the same day, Mr. J. Q. Adams proposed the same 
resolutions in the House of Representatives, and asked a sus- 
pension of the rules for leave to present them ; but after a, 
brief debate, leave was refused, by a vote of 50 yeas to 105 
nays. On February 5th, several members from New York 
brought forward petitions, praying for the amendment of 
the Constitution, already suggested, and for the abolition of 
slavery in the Southern States, which were not received. 
6* 



130 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAK, 

Other petitions were offered for the repeal of the 21st rule, 
and that the Ordinance of 1787 might be extended to all ter- 
ritory west of the Mississippi River, which were severally 
laid on the table, the vote ranging from yeas 118 to nays 56. 
On the same day, Mr. Adams once more brought up the 
Massachusetts resolutions ; but the House again refused to 
receive them. 

Three days afterwards, Mr. Bates took occasion to re- 
mark in the Senate, that " he had presented the resolves of 
the Massachusetts Legislature, because, as a Senator from 
that State, he thought it his duty to do so. He had moved 
to lay them on the table. There was not within his contem- 
plation more than one event that could happen which could 
induce him to call them up. He teas not for disturbing the 
foundations of the Government.'''' He suggested, however, 
that the Senate had permitted certain counter-resolutions 
from the legislatures of Southern States to be printed, after 
the opportunity had passed for him to renew his motion to 
print those offered by himself But the Senate may have 
thought, that it was not of such evil example to print re- 
solves in favor of sustaining the Government, as those calcu- 
lated to disturb its foundations. 

In fact, it seems that the House, acting in concert with 
the views of the Senate, had referred to a select committee 
certain resolutions of the legislative assemblies of Virginia 
and Alabama, protesting against the projDOSed amendment 
of the Constitution. This matter was finally set at rest by 
the action of the House upon the report of this committee, 
which was made March 22d. The chairman, Mr. Dromgoole, 
of Virginia, in presenting the report, said that the commit- 
tee was desirous " to let the country know whether the 
vote of this House would sanction the change j^roposed, or 
would preserve the Constitution. There was nothing in the 
report harsh or unkind to the Legislature or people of Massa- 
chusetts." The report, which is brief, sets forth the views 
of the committee, as follows, the facts here omitted being of 
less general importance : 



BOTH PAETIES m MASSACHUSETTS PLAY WITH ABOLITION. 131 

" The select Oommittee report th at they have maturely considered the 
proposition of the General Assembly of Massachusetts, to amend the Consti- 
tution of the United States, by apportioning representatives and direct taxes 
according to the whole number of free persons now embraced in the determina- 
tion of the federal numbers. This proposition is strongly and unanimously 
condemned by the General Assembly of Virginia, and is regarded, in truth, as 
a proposition virtually to dissolve the Union. The committee * * are of 
opinion that the proposed alteration of the compromise would produce a peace- 
able or violent dissolution of the Union. The committee, anxiously desirous 
of preserving the Constitution in its true meaning, as formed by the convention 
and ratified by the States, and confidently believing that such is the deliberate 
sense of the States, and of the people thereof, with very rare exceptions, are 
of opinion that no such proposition as that of the General Assemblv of 
Massachusetts ought to be recommended by Congress, or favored in the least 
degree." 

Accordingly, they proposed the following resolutions : 

Resolved, That the rule established in the Constitution as the basis of 
representation and direct taxation, resulting from a spirit of concession and 
compromise, essential to the formation and preservation of the union of the 
States, ought to be held sacred by the friends of the Union. 

Resolved, That no proposition to alter or amend the Constitution, in rela. 
tion to representation and direct taxation among the States, ought to be recom- 
mended by Congress ; but that any such proposition ought to be promptly and 
decisively condemned. 

The vote was taken forthwith upon this report, and the 
first resolution was passed by yeas 158 to nays 18, and the 
second by yeas 127 to nays 41. The reason for this differ- 
ence of votes upon the two propositions is not very apparent. 
If the rule in question " ought to be held sacred," it is obvious 
that Congress ought not to recommend, and ought to con- 
demn any proposition to change it. 

It appears, therefore, from this recapitulation, that if the 
Democratic Governor of Massachusetts coquetted with aboli- 
tion, in 1843, the Whig Governor was no less forward to pay 
it court in 1844; and, that, while the legislature of the first- 
mentioned year showed its readiness to place the negro, the 
mulatto, and the Indian on an equality witli the white race 
of the country, in regard to the most delicate and sacred of 
all relations, the legislature of the succeeding year adopted 



132 OKIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

a measure, which, in the judgment of other States, and of the 
National Congress, amounted to a proposition to " disturb 
the foundations of the Government," and, in fact, to dissolve 
the Union. 

It should be noticed, at this point, also, that at the session 
of the Massachusetts Legislature of 1843, under a Democratic 
administration of the State, resolves had been adopted which 
provided for the appointment of agents, who were to repair 
to the several cities of Charleston and New Orleans, in order 
to bring to legal test a matter which had caused much dis- 
satisfaction at the North. Under the laws of many of the 
Southern States, it had been the practice of the port-ofRcers 
of their seaports to take all colored persons out of the crews 
of vessels arriving in the harbor, and to lodge them in sora# 
place of confinement, at the charges of the owners of the 
vessels, until the time for sailing again arrived. The ship 
thus lost, for a time, the services of the steward or cook, or 
of such other colored individuals as constituted a part of her 
crew, and the owner was subjected, in addition, to the cost of 
their support during the prescribed period. 

This was certainly a hardship ; especially as persons of 
African blood were thought best suited to the culinary 
department on board ship, and were generally employed in 
that capacity in the larger class of Northern vessels which 
proceeded to the Southern ports, and. afterwai-ds pursued 
their voyages to Europe. The ground assumed for the prac- 
tice in question regarded the evils which it was thought 
might result from free intercourse of blacks directly from the 
free States, and particularly from the Eastern States, with the 
blacks who were either slaves or freedmen in the trading cities 
of the South. At the period indicated, the local authoi-ities 
in the latter quarter would be likely to be more than usually 
tenacious on the point at issue ; since, in consequence of the 
active agitation of the slavery question, and of noted efforts 
to circulate papers, by the mails, calculated to excite uneasi- 
ness among the negroes, it would naturally be suspected that 
colored persons attached to sliips from the free States might 



A MISSION TO CHAKLE8T0N. 133 

be tlie express emissaries of abolition organizations. The 
Legislature of Massacliusetts urged that citizens of that State 
were thus deprived of the privileges and immunities secured 
to them by the Constitution. 

Without presuming to discuss a question of law, more 
recently considered by the Stipreme Court, and -which had 
not then come up for determination, it may be observed that 
tlie Southern people acted upon views affecting their own 
security, and wei*e, doubtlessly, in a frame of mind not favor- 
able to a calm hearing of the proj^osition of Maaeachusetts. 
They had ample notice of the proposed measure, however ; 
because, although the legislature of" 1843 contented itself 
with resolving, and the Executive took no action upon the 
•subject; yet, in the following year, the resolutions were 
renewed by their "Whig successors, and suitable agents were 
appointed conformably with their design. The fortunes 
which attended the mission to Charleston prevented any 
attempt to fulfil the assigned duty at New Orleans. No 
choice could have been more proper than that by which the 
agent for the former city was selected. The gentleman fixed 
upon was of the best possible repixtation, of venerable years, 
of eminent ability, and of agreeable address.' He was tinc- 
tured with none of the spirit of fanaticism ; but held similar 
constitutional views, in regard to slavery, with those gen- 
erally entertained by members of the legal profession, in 
which he was himself highly distinguished, and by most per- 
sons in leading positions at the North, Avho were not em- 
broiled in the schemes of local politics. 

Immediately on his arrival at Charleston, he communi- 
cated, by note, the purpose of his visit to the Governor of 
South Carolina. The Executive at once referred the subject 
to the Legislature of the State, then in session, by a brief 
message. But the visitor was, in the mean time, unofficially 
made aware that he would not be permitted to execute his 
mission, and that popular feeling upon the subject rendered 

■ Hon. Samuel Hoar, of Concord, Mass. 



134 OKIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

it advisable for him forthwith to leave the State. Accord- 
ingly, he retraced his steps. But the treatment which he 
received, though he had been subjected to no personal out- 
rage, was warmly resented by many, who alleged that the 
State, of which he was the authorized agent, had been griev- 
ously insulted, and the Constitution of the United States 
violated, by his exclusion from the pursuit of a peaceful legal 
remedy for an alleged public wrong. 

It is probable that, twenty years earlier, no resistance 
would haje been offered to an attempt to bring the point at 
issue to the cognizance of the tribunals of the United States, 
if the remedy had been sought for by private citizens. But 
the mode adopted placed one State, in its capacity as a sov- 
ereign power, in direct antagonism with another State, upon 
a question in which feelings and interests, though differing 
in character and importance, were warmly engaged upon the 
one side and the other. Hence, whatever may have been 
the actual legal rights of Massachusetts and the constitution- 
al duties of South Carolina, it may be deemed very question- 
able, whether the legislative proceedings of the former were 
not both inexpedient and untimely. Right or wrong, those 
proceedings, in the existing temper, were sure to give offence. 
It was a question of judgment and good temper, whether it 
were worth while to provoke it under such circumstances. 

It is obvious, that the question to be determined, in this 
contingency, would not be the mere naked point — whether a 
negro arriving from the North could be lawfully held in 
temporary conlinement, as a matter of police regulation, in 
the slave State ; but that a grand problem of State rights, 
upon the interpretation of the Constitution, lay at the bottom 
of the controversy. Because, at that period, the general 
question would have opened a much wider field of discussion 
than the Dred Scott case — whether the clause of the Consti- 
tution, which assigns to the citizens of each State the jn-ivi- 
leges and immunities of citizens in all the States, includes : 

1. Those citizens of tlie States who are such simply under the laws of the 
beveral States ; or, means — 



UNSETTLED STATE OF POLITICAL PAKTIES. 135 

2. Only those citizens of the States who are also citizens of the United 
States, and — 

3. Whether persons of African descent, who may have been reckoned citi- 
zens of some of the States, were also, in consequence, to be considered citizens 
of the United States. 

For it may be worthy of grave consideration — wliefher 
a class of persons, not thought of as citizens, in either sense, 
in more than half the States, at the time of the adoption of 
the Constitution, could be rightfully accounted citizens of the 
United States, so as to be entitled to the privileges of citi- 
zens in all the States.' 

Such had been the course of the abolition struggle, for 
several years after the adoption of the rule which excluded 
all papers relating to the subject of slavery from the consid- 
eration of Congress. Rei^ressed in one place, the fire of 
fanaticism broke out elsewhere. It is needless, and would be 
impossible, to present complete details of the action taken by 
those more or less in sympathy with the agitators, through- 
out the free States. The instances already cited may suffice 
to show to what extremities persons in official positions, who 
would have resented the imputation of being abolitionists, 
Avcre nevertheless prepared to push measures really in aid of 
the objects contemplated by the abolitionists, and Avhich 
could have no other effect, if effective in any way whatever. 
Massachusetts, which, for many preceding years, had held 
steadily by the several successive party names of Federalist, 
National Republican, and "Whig, had become unsettled, like 
other States, by the great political contest of 1840, and con- 
fused by the events which followed upon the speedy transfer 

' Although the fact of voting has been by no means a test of citizenship 
in some of the States — in New England, at least, until recently, the exercise 
of this right has been duly regulated and guarded. As to the voting of ne- 
groes, probably they may have been accustomed to do so from an early date 
in some of the cities, where they were numerous enough to make it worth 
while for the several parties to claim their suffrages. The writer is confident, 
however, that in one of the most populous towns of Massachusetts, in which 
there was formerly a large colony of negroes, long resident, they were never 
thought of as voters, and never did vote, until within a few years paat. 



136 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

of the responsibilities of office from President Harrison to 
President Tyler. 

At length, the State stood somewhat nicely balanced be- 
tween the claims of Whiggism and Democracy, and the 
fortunes of the latter, for the moment, turned the scale. A 
Democratic legislature, at the instance of a Democratic Ex- 
ecutive, had demanded the abrogation of a fundamental pro- 
vision of the Constitution, and had also provided for a sort 
of State mission to two of the principal slave States, which, 
under the guise of peace, was little less than a declaration 
of open war. The Whig successoi:s of the Democrats, in the 
executive .and legislative departments, when the tide had 
once more turned in favor of the former, had made extraor- 
dinary haste to place themselves upon an equal footing, in 
this resj)ect, with their political opponents. The result of 
this party scramble, indicating the state of Northern senti- 
ment elsewhere, also, than in Massachusetts, was of a very 
striking chaTacter in its effect on Congress. On the second 
day of the session of that body, in 1844, Mr. John Quincy 
Adams moved that the Twenty-first Rule, which had now 
been in operation since 1840, be rescinded. TVithout discus- 
sing here the propriety or expediency of a measure exei'cisiug 
a sweep so absolutely exclusive as that Rule' it may be re- 
marked, that it was adopted undoubtedly on the principle 
said to have been suggested by a member of an early House 
of Conmions, which obtained the assent of its members : 

" I hear a lion in the lobby roar ; 

■ Say, Mr. Speaker, shall wc bar the door, 

And keep him out ? Or shall we let him in, 

And do our best to put him out again ? " 

If Congress, after its long experience of the effects of such 
papers, in the two branches, found that the consideration of 
memorials addressed to it, in relation to slavery, in any of 
its aspects, was unfavorable to the transaction of the ordi- 
nary business of legislation, and believed that their tendency 
was to disturb the national peace and to place the Union 
itself in imminent peril, surely it was bound to take some 



REPEAL OF THE " TWENTT-FIEST EULE." 137 

decisive step to prevent debate in regard to that subject 
upon its own floors. This was a matter entirely within its 
discretion, of which it was itself the best judge and the 
rightful judge. Unhappily, subsequent events have only too 
surely confirmed the wisdom of the general view taken of 
this subject by Congress. But the question between itself 
and those in the ISTorthern States who were disposed to press 
this matter to its ultimate conclusions, regardless of conse- 
quences, was of a difierent nature. Probably, the same end 
could have been attained, with less danger of popular dis- 
satisfaction, if the House had adopted the plan uniformly 
pursued in the Senate, for twenty years after 1840, of quietly 
receiving such memorials, and laying them upon the table, 
without further notice. The shot would then have been dis- 
charged, with no more dangerous efiect than in experimental 
gunnery, when the projectile is lodged harmlessly in the sand. 
As it was, the charge remained pent up, its operators long- 
ing for an explosion, and constantly adding to it new accu- 
mulations of missile force. 

Upon the motion of Mr. Adams, the House voted to re- 
peal the Twenty-first Kule, the ballot standing — yeas, 109; 
nays, 11. Whether owing to local considerations, or from 
real regard to the right of petition, Avhich was the ground 
of argument of Mr. Winthrop and others, who spoke in favor 
of the motion, the names of no less than forty-seven North- 
ern Democrats are recorded in the majority on this occasion ; 
twenty-four of whom were members from New York, 
Maine, and Connecticut, one from New Hampshire, and one 
from Massachusetts. The Northern Whigs voted in the 
affirmative; but with them were six members from the 
slave States (Clingman of North Carolina, Hamlin of South 
Carolina, Kennedy, Preston, and Wethered of Maryland, 
and White of Kentucky) ; a fact clearly proving that 
no absolutely sectional line was drawn upon this ques- 
tion. On the negative side are to be observed the names 
of Mr. Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, and of Mr. Alexander 
H. Stephens of Georgia. In fact, the Northern Democratic 



138 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

members had begun to discover, that they would find it 
difficult to carry their own elections, under the Twenty-first 
Rule. 

On the first of December of the following year, an in- 
effectual motion was made to revive that Rule, in favor of 
which Mr. Johnson and Mr. Stephens agaia voted ; but on 
the 11th of the same month, a petition from New York, 
praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, and of slavery in general, was laid upon the table by a 
vote of yeas 108, nays 59. It thus appears, that however 
well disposed the House felt, to yield to popular sentiment 
in regard to the right of petition, its views remained sub- 
stantially unchanged, as to taking any legislative action on 
the subject of abolition memorials, and continued adverse to 
giving them any actual consideration. Indeed, the position 
of the two great parties rendered this state of things inevi- 
table. The Whig organization and the Democratic alike,, ex- 
tended throughout the North and the South, in nearly equal 
strength. Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ken- 
tucky, had just voted side by side with Massachusetts, for 
Mr. Clay. Maine and New Hampshire, and several of the 
free States of the West, had given their suj^port, Avith South 
Carolina, to the pretensions of Mr, Polk. 

The abolitionists proper professed that they took no per- 
sonal part in poUtics, not even so much as to vote, under a 
government which it was their avowed design to overthrow. 
They confined their efibrts for this great purpose to moral 
suasion and vituperation. Some of their conspicuous associ- 
ates made a merit of throwing up commissions as justices of 
the peace, which they had happened to hold as incidental to 
professional positions. This view of their mission necessarily 
kept their esoteric circle extremely limited and exclusive, 
and made it totally inefficient for the accomplishment of any 
practical end. They were, in fact, a small body of morbid 
and fantastic enthusiasts, incapable of effecting any thing 
beyond the circumscribed limits of their own operations, in 
which only they themselves were specially interested. Ac- 



THE LfBEKTT PAETY WERE POLITICIANS. 139 

cordingly, they were scarcely thouglit of at all, in the com- 
munities where they were most numerous, upon ordinary 
occasions, or in relation to politics ; and whenever their 
annual meetings were held in public places, they were objects 
of general ridicule, and in their more excessive manifestations 
of general indignation. 

The much larger class of persons who were most efficient 
in stirring up agitation, on the several points of public dis- 
cussion which affected the general subject of slavery, pro- 
fessed opinions far less extreme than those of the abolitionists, 
and disavowed all sympathy with their declared objects of 
overthrowing slavery in the States. The Liberty party, 
which, strange to say, began its operations in seeming an- 
tagonism to the specific purposes of the abolitionists, showed 
at least more sagacity in devising and pursuing its plan of 
conditct.^ It knew, that to affect men, it must act with men ; 
■and that a sect promiscuously made up of male and female 
visionaries, might go on dreaming forever, to no end, until 
the sphere of dream became exhausted of its indwellers, by 
the passage of one after another to a different state of being, 
in which the realities of a more mature existence should take 
the place of the shows and shadows of the world. 

The Liberty party organization consisted of a different 
order of men. They were politicians ; and it eventually 
proved that they had among them, actuated by a variety of 
motives, persons who held eminent public positions, and who 
could exercise more or less efficient influence upon the course 
of public events. Though, in the election of 1844, their 
demonstration had shown them to be comparatively few in 

' The Liherator, Mr. Garrison's paper, thus characterized the Liberty party 
in December, 1844, in reference to the passage from the Emancipato}; ah-eady 
quoted : 

" It fully sustains our charge, that the warfare of the psucdo-Liberty party 
is not so much against the pro-slavery of the two great parties, as against the 
\V7dy party itself, and 'its aims, purposes, its political economy, its measures, 
its men,' — whatever it may say or do, either in its local or general action, in 
behalf of the antislavery movement." 



140 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAU. 

numbers, yet, the apparently insignificant vote which they 
were able to throw, in the State of New York, had been 
sufficient to give a- turn to affi^irs, which, by the Whig party, 
at least, was regarded as disastrous in its promise to the 
future fortunes of the Republic. This Liberty j)arty was, 
of course, confined to the Northern section of the country. 
It was imjiossible that the appearance of such an ominous 
gathering on the horizon should not produce a profound im- 
pression ujDon the minds of thoughtful persons at the South, 
and still more excite the passions of the less considerate 
multitude in that quarter. 

While the one section, having direct personal interests in 
the question of slavery, would regard siich a manifestation 
of ill-concealed hostility to the institution of slavery as tend- 
ing to an infraction of their constitutional rights ; the other 
section, having in the question merely incidental interests, 
looked upon the movement but as j^art of a political 
struggle, only involving the temporary political supremacy 
of the one party or the other, and not as seriously afiecfing 
the security of the common welfare. To the one section, it 
was the occasional exercise of a supposed lawful, but abstract 
right ; to the other, it was thought to call for the steady, con- 
stant defence of home-bred concerns, which were absolute 
realities of daily and intimate necessity. To the one, the 
agitation of the topic might have seemed almost sport ; to . 
the other, in their- view of their j^ublic and private rights, it 
was little less than death. This distinction prevailed, down 
to the very outbreak of the rebellion. The masses of the 
Republican party in the country, if not its representatives in 
Congress, though always forcing the matter hotly up to that 
point, yet never believed, to the last, that their action could 
provoke actual rebellion, and induce civil war. There were 
always those among them, however, both in Congress and 
out of it, who desired and sought that result. 

It was amid this state of things that the question of the 
annexation of Texas to the United States became a theme of 
earnest controversy, the agitation of which finally appeared 



THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 141 

to shake the country to its very centre, c At the moment, the 
project -vras undoubtedly brought forward for the purpose of 
strengthening the political power of the slave States, in view 
of the antislavery storm which they had construed the vari- 
ous signs of the times to mean was likely before long to 
burst upon them from' the North. Regarding it as a matter 
of mere territorial acquisition, comprising a region of vast 
extent and extraordinary fertility, and promising immense 
commercial advantages by its possession, the plan was not 
only unobjectionable in itself considered, but was received 
with great acceptance by large classes at the North, as it 
certainly met with almost universal favor throughout the 
South. 

The idea of recovering this territory to the United States 
w^as by no means of recent origin. In 1825, Mr. Adams, 
during his term of presidency, had made a formal proffer for 
its purchase of Mexico, to which it had fallen under the im- 
provident arrangements of a treaty between the United States 
and Spain, in 1819. Mr. Clay, at that period, had taken very 
strong ground against this cession, by earnest speeches in 
the House, and by resolutions which he introduced,. in con- 
demnation of the measure. The proposition to purchase had 
been renewed by Mr. Adams in 1827 ; and was, in like man- 
ner, the subject of similar unsuccessful negotiation, during 
the administrations of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, in 
the years 1829, 1833, and 1835. Under color of the impolicy 
of the treaty of 1819, and of the originally undefined western 
boundary of the Louisiana Territory, the advocates of the 
present proposition spoke of the project under the name of 
re-annexation. 

The Republic of Texas was now at war w^ith Mexico ; 
and President Tyler had taken advantage of the fact to offer 
to the former a treaty of annexation on his own responsi- 
bility, which would comprehend, by its terms, not only the 
actual territory of Texas, but a tract of very large extent be- 
longing to Mexico itself To be sure, by the treaty of Gua- 
dalupe Hidalgo, ratified at the termination of the war with 



142 OEIGm OF THE LATE "WAR. 

Mexico, the Rio Grande was afterwards agreed upon as the 
future boundary between that country and the United States, 
except so far as regarded the Territories of New Mexico and 
California, which were purchased of Mexico by the United 
States, under the provisions of the same treaty. Mr. Tyler, 
however, had seen fit to adopt that river as tl^e boundary, 
v/ithout taking the trouble to seek any adjustment of pre- 
liminaries with Mexico. When this treaty came before the 
Senate, it was rejected by a A^ery large majority (35 to 16), 
and the peculiar circumstances of this transaction had at- 
tracted more than ordinary attention to the general subject. 

In the various propositions for final settlement of the 
question, the principle of the Missouri Compromise, exclud- 
ing slavery fi-om that portion of the territory lying north 
of 36° 30' north latitude, was introduced, so that a 
chief source of controversy was virtually shut out from the 
vast range of discussion opened by this topic. It could not 
be prevented, however, from coming in incidentally. On 
one occasion, in the course of debate in the House, Mr. 
Douglas, of Illinois, having stated the fact that Mr. Adams, 
while President, had made overtures for the annexation of 
Texas, that gentleman exj)lained that this was during tho 
period that the province was a dependency of Mexico, which 
had previously abolished slavery.^ This was true ; but it 
was also true that the question of slavery or antislavery was 
then of very little political importance, it having been settled 
already, for the time at least, by the adjustment of the com- 
promise line ; under which all of Texas, it being situated be- 
low the latitude of 36° 30' north, latitude, would, of course, 
be subject to the introduction of slavery, upon its admission 
to the Union. 

But the chief ground of opposition to the measure was 
the alleged unconstitutional mode proposed for carrying it 
into efiect. The question had many political bearings in jre- 
lation to the coming election of President ; and, besides con- 

' Eetaining a modified and temporary form of servitude, under the name 
of peonage. 



• INGENUITY OF THE SENATE. 143 

siderations of a public or of a sectional character affecting it, 
large private interests were also involved, by the amount of 
Texas scrip in the possession of individuals of both 2)arties. 
In the main, however, it assumed the character of a dispute 
between the Whigs and the Democrats. The former con- 
tended, with great foi'ce, that, as Texas was no part of the 
territory of the United States, but actually a foreign domain, 
it could not constitutionally become one of the States of the 
Union by virtue of an act of Congress, which had no power 
in the premises, but must be annexed, if it all, by Executive 
authority; that is, through a formal treaty negotiated by 
the President, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
members of the Senate. As this body was nearly equally 
divided between the two great parties, the constitutional 
method of effecting the object was out of the qxiestion; but 
the Democrats held a majority in the lower branch. 

Eventually this formidable obstacle was overcome in the 
Senate, by a very ingenious device. The resolutions for the 
admission of Texas, by act of Congress, upon the conditions 
as to slavery recognized by the Missouri Compromise line, 
passed the House, January 28th, 1845, by a vote of 118 yeas 
to 101 nays. Among the former were 51 Northern Demo- 
crats; among the latter, 19 Southern Wliigs. When these 
proceedings of the House were before the Senate, on February 
27th, an additional resolve was proposed. The resolutions of 
the Hx>use were recited, in the proposition to the Senate, and 
the further resolve declared that, if the President, in his judg- 
ment and discretion, should see fit to negotiate with the Repub- 
lic of Texas, by treaty, instead of jiroposing to it the reso- 
lutions in question, then, it provided that a State shall 
"be formed out of the present Republic of Texas," and 
" shall be admitted into the Union, by virtue of this act, on 
an equal footing with the existing States." An aj)propri- 
ation was made "to defray the expenses of missions and ne- 
gotiations, to agree upon the terms of said admission and 
cession, either by treaty to be submitted to the Senate, or by 
articles to be submitted to tlie two Houses of Congress, as 
the President- may direct." 



144 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. • 

These amended resolutions passed the Senate, by a vote 
of 27 yeas to 25 nays. Of the majority in this case, twelve 
were Democrats from the free States ; of the minority, twelve 
were Whigs from the ^lave States. The two Whig Senators 
from Maryland voted with the majority. The House con- 
curred with the Senate, on the following day (February 28th), 
by a vote of yeas 132 to 76 nays. These resolutions were 
approved by the President, Mr, Tyler, March 1, 1845 ; and 
he forthwith selected the House resolution, pr^iding for im- 
mediate annexation, and at once despatched a special mes- 
senger to Texasj to complete the necessary arrangements. 
Nor did he wait for the "judgment and discretion " of his 
successor, who was to be inaugurated within three days from 
the date of his own action upon a matter of so much conse- 
quence to the administration of the new President and to the 
country. 

The country was roused to an extraordinary pitch of ex- 
citement by these remarkable proceedings. It was well 
known that the amendment of the Senate to the resolutions 
of the House had alone secured the passage through both 
branches of measures effective for the purposes of annexation. 
It was alleged by those who had the means of knowing, that 
Mr. Polk, the President elect, would have chosen the alterna- 
tive resolution, which provided for the admission of Texas 
by negotiation.' It was obvious that war with Mexico must 
be the result of the admission of Texas by the mode adopted. 
This matter was viewed in very different aspects by different 
minds ; perhaps, it should be said, by different political par- 
ties. Texas had been practically, as well as by formal decla- 
ration, independent of Mexico, for ten years preceding the 
annexation. She had revolted, when the Republic of which 
she had formed a State became subject to the power of a 
military dictator. She had been victorious in battle, and the 
dictator, Santa Anna, had formally agreed to her indepen- 
dence by treaty, while a prisoner of war in her hands, as the 



* " Thirty Years' View." 



MEXICO AND TEXAS. 145 

condition of his liberation. Several of the principal powers 
of Europe had followed the example of the United States, 
and had recognized her nationality. N"o attempt had been 
made, in the mean time, to reduce her again to the domination 
of Mexico. 

But the Mexicans had retaliated within their ports upon 
the commerce of the United States, on account of alleged 
sympathy with Texas, and of aid rendered to her, and had 
instituted exactions, and inflicted many and aggravated inju- 
ries upon our mercantile interests, for which no redress 
could be obtained. The more efficieut part of the population 
of Texas consisted of emigrants from the United States, who 
had been induced to become citizens of the State, while under 
a republican form of government, and who had gallantly 
aided with heart and hand in the revolution against military 
dictatorship. Upon the pendency of the arrangements for 
annexation, Mexico had given plain notice of its intention 
to recover possession of Texas by arms. When the admis- 
sion was consummated, by invitation of the United States, 
the entrance of the Union army into Texas, to defend one of 
her own States, was an imperative duty. The fault consisted 
in the original mode adopted to effect the annexation, which, 
it was " obvious, could have been obtained peaceably, by 
treaty ; and if any trouble had been then experienced in 
effecting a reasonable composition with Mexico, the blame 
would have been on the part of that Government. The 
result could then have been readily predicted, considering that 
its power and resources bore no comparison with those of 
the United States. 

But an ample field was thus opened for discussion of a 
question of such national consequence, and presenting such a 
variety of bearings and relations, during the recess of Con- 
gress. The dispute raged in the North with a vehemence 
unexampled since the period of the Missouri settlement. 
The press, on both sides, was animated with all the vigor 
which a topic so intimately connected with extreme party 
interests was calculated to inspire, and multitudes of public 
1 



146 OKIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

addresses testified to the zeal with which both parties entered 
into the contest. Nor was the spirit manifested at the South 
less vehement. In some parts of it — .in South Carolina, for 
example, and perhaps elsewhere — the cry of "Texas, or Dis- 
union," was openly raised, and warmly reiterated. Of the 
Northern States, Massachusetts had been promptly and deci- 
sively in the field, in its legislative capacity ; and the tone of 
its resolutions, during successive years, before the question 
had been acted upon in Congress, and while it was in prog- 
ress at Washington, may serve as an indication of the tem- 
per displayed by the more ardent opponents of the project.' 
So early as in the legislative session of 1843, with a Demo- 
cratic Governor in the chair, and a majority of Democrats 
in both branches of the General Court,^ a stand was taken on 
this subject, which, as an expression of the deliberate opinion 
of sober legislators, may be thought to afibrd a somewhat 
ominous intimation of disunion sentiment in the North. It 
was, in fact, resolved : 

" That, under no circumstances whatever, can the people of Massachusetts 
regard the proposition to admit Texas into the Union in any other light than 
as dangerons to its continuance in peace, in prosperity, and in the enjoyment 
of those blessings which it is the object of a free government to secure." 

It is plain that the words italicised could have had 
reference to the domestic peace of the Union alone ; an in- 
terpretation which is confirmed by the only construction of 
which the context appears to admit. Indeed, it could hardly 
have been said with any reason by the legislature, that 
" under no circumstances whatever " could the annexation 
take place without danger of foreign icar, since it certainly 
was possible to effect that object by amicable arrangement. 
Nor could there be any thing in the measure dangerous to the 
internal peace of the Union, except at the will of those who 
passed this resolution, and of others at the North in sympathy 
with them ; since the people of the South were understood to 

' That is the official style of the Legislature of Massachusetts, derived 
from a very early period. 



LEGISLATIVE EESOLUTIOXS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 147 

be veiy generally in favor of the measure, against wliieli this 
emphatic and unquali tied protest was pronounced. The Gov- 
ernor was requested to forward the resolution to the Sen- 
ators and Representatives of Massachusetts in Congress, and 
to call upon them to spare no exertions to oppose and, if 
possible, to prevent the annexation ; and also to send a copy- 
to the Executive of each State. The spirit of " the people 
of Massachusetts," therefore, so far as they were truly repre- 
sented by the legislature, was thus extensively made known 
in other States. 

For reasons which doubtless seemed to hira sufficient, and 
which may, perhaps, be inferred. Governor Morton did not 
affix his signature to this resolution ; a fact which was af- 
terwards called to notice on the floor of Congress ; to which 
Mr. J. Q. Adams made reply, that " the resolution was intro- 
duced into the legislature by the leader of the Democratic 
party." 

But if any doubt could remain as to the meaning of the 
Massachusetts Democrats, in the legislature of 1843, no such 
question could attend upon the more specific language em- 
ployed by the Massachusetts WhigSj in the legislature of 
1844. But, in the preamble to a resolution of a still later 
date (1847), the action of j)rcceding legislatures is referred 
to, as having taken place on this subject, " with great 
unanimity ; " so that the conclusion cannot but be justi- 
fied, that both Democrats and Whigs in the legislature 
concurred in the general sentiment expressed on those sev- 
eral occasions. In the year 1844, the legislature, directing 
that the proceedings should be sent to Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress, as usual, and to the Executives of the 
se^'eral States, in this instance with the approval of the Gov- 
ernor, solemnly 

Resolved, * * * That the project of the annexation of Texas, unless 
arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive theSe States into a dissolution of 
the Union. 

The idea of the dissolution of the Union, therefore, as a 
consequence of the annexation in question, was contemplated 



148 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

by the legislative assembly of Massacliusetts, and was held 
out by it as a menace to the General Government, to prevent 
the consummation of the project. In later days, such action 
as this could hardly have failed to incur the imputation of 
" disloyalty ; " and it affords, perhaps, one of the most em- 
phatic examples possible of the assertion of " State Rights." 
As the time for the determination of this question drew 
nearer at hand, the sjiirit of the Massachusetts legislators 
proved to have become by no means abated in the interval. 
On the 22d day of February, 1845 — whether the act was, or 
was not clothed with a more solemn sanction, by selecting 
for it the anniversary of the birth of the first great President 
from a slaveholding State — the Governor approved a fur- 
ther series of resolutions, passed with the/ usual formalities 
in regard to transmission to Congress and the Executives of 
other States. Their identity of character with those of a 
former date aj)pears by the following extracts : 

Resolved, * * * And, as the powers of legislation, granted in the 
Constitution of the United States to Congress, do not embrace a case of the 
achnission of a foreign state or foreign territory, by legislation, into the Union, 
sucli an act of admission would have no binding force whatever on the people 
of Massachusetts. 

Right or wrong as these several successive demonstra- 
tions may have been, as a matter of principle, it is quite evi- 
dent that they enunciated the assertion of the right of nulli- 
fication and secession ; and that, if followed out to their le- 
gitimate results, they could have received their practical 
application only on the " peacably, if we can ; forcibly, if we 
must " doctrine of a former representative of the State in 
Congress. In a further resolution of the same series (1845), 
the real reason for the objection aj)pears, as follows : 

" That the people of Massachusetts will never consent to \ise the powers 
reserved to themselves to admit Texas, or any other state or territory now 
without the Union, on any other basis than the perfect equality of freemen. 
And that while slavery, or slave representation, forms any part of the claims 
or conditions of admission, Texas, with their consent, can never be ad- 
mitted," 



ME. TYLEK AND ME. POLK. 149 

To a cnreful observer, there may appear to be a partial 
inconsistency between these several expressions of legislative 
determination. By the first of the latter two resolutions, 
the members declared that the admission of a foreign 
state or territory, by legislation, would have no binding 
force upon the people of Massachusetts ; by the second, that, 
in spite of the Missouri Compromise, or any other considera-' 
tion, they will never consent to the admission, by any mode 
whatever, of such state or ten-itory, with slavery o. slave 
representation. The implication certainly is, by comparison 
of the two resolves, that the admission of such state or ter- 
ritory, by some other mode than legislation, would be of 
constitutional obligation ; yet that they will not consent to 
be bound by it, if slavery or slave representation constitute 
either of the conditions. The language in italic letters in 
the resolve last above cited is remarkable, as being an extraor- 
dinary claim for the reserved rights of the people of a State. 
But the right to admit States was not among those reserved, 
it having been especially granted to the Congress of the 
United States. 

Notwithstanding this action of the General Court of 
Massachusetts, with that of the legislative assemblies of va- 
rious other non-slaveholding States, the two Houses of Con- 
gress concurred in passing the alternative resolutions for the 
admission of Texas, on the 28th of the same month of Feb- 
ruary. Mr. Tyler adopted the mode of procedure hy legisla- 
tion, on the first of March, and despatched his messenger to 
Texas. Mr. Polk thought, perhaps, after his own inaugura- 
tion, that the matter had gone too far to warrant the attempt 
to recall the agent of his predecessor, or that such a step 
might have an aAvkward influence upon party relations — at 
the best not too concordant at the time — and the affair was 
permitted to take its course. At the beginning of the next 
session of Congress, in December, 1845, a niultitude of me- 
morials, on the one side and the other of the question, were 
heaped upon its tables, together Avith the proceedings of the 
legislative assemblies of various States. 



150 OEiGm or the late wae. 

But Texas, in tlie mean time, had formally acceded to the 
terms proposed; and on the 10th of December, a joint reso- 
lution for its admission into the Union was reported, hy com- 
mittee, to the House, and it passed that hody by a vote of 
yeas 141 to nays 57. On the 22d of December, which, as a 
noteworthy coincidence, happened to be the anniversary of the 
landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, the Senate also 
adopted the resolution, by a vote of 31 yeas to 14 nays. 
Upon this final disi^osition of the question, the Southern 
Whigs acted in concert with the Southern and Northern 
Democrats. In the majority vote of the House, the names 
of Messrs. Johnson of Tennessee, Hamlin of Maine, and 
Davis of Mississippi, appear, in conjunction with those of 
such leading members of the Whig jDarty as Messrs. Hilliard 
of Alabama, and Toombs and Stephens of Georgia. In the 
Senate, Messrs. Archer of Virginia, Berrien of Georgia, and 
Mangum of North Carolina, with their fellows, voted with 
Messrs. Calhoun of South Carolina, Cass of Michigan, Dick- 
inson and Dix of New York, and other well-known members 
of the Democratic party. 

It is certainly curious to trace the history of these State 
resolutions ; because, however decided their phraseology, 
they often exert only a very temporary influence ; and for 
another reason shortly to be noticed. It should be obseiwed, 
that soon after Mr. Tyler's messenger was on his way to 
Texas, another series of resolves, directed especially against 
the President's action, passed the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts, and was approved by the Governor, March 26th, 1845. 
These were entitled " Resolves concerning the admission of 
the slaveholding nation of Texas into the Union." They 
declared that Massachusetts refuses to acknowledge " the act 
of the Goverament of the United States, autliorizing the 
admission of Texas, as a legal act," and promise every law- 
ful exertion to ^nnul and defeat it. They insist that no Ter- 
ritoi-y ought to be admitted as a State, except on the condi- 
tion that slavery shall " be utterly extinguished within its 
borders ; " and that Massachusetts " denies the validity of 



MASSACHUSETTS ON ADMrrrmG TEXAS. 151 

any compromise lohatever, that may have been, or that here- 
after may be, entered into by pei'sons in the Government of 
the United States^'' inconsistently with this declaration. 
This seems to be a sort of guarded rebellion, in words. It 
was not a rendering to CaDsar the things that ai*e Caesar's. 
Besides, it annulled, so far as it could annul, the Missouri 
Compromise of 1820. Texas, however, having gained its 
footing in the Union, though by a clearly unconstitutional 
procedure of Congress, the legislature took breath for one 
succeeding year. But the war with Mexico having then be- 
come flagrant, finally it adopted the following resolution, 
which was approved February 27th, 1847 : 

Resolved, That the people of Massachusetts will strenuously resist the an- 
nexation of any new territory to this Union in which the institution of slavery 
is to be tolerated or established ; and the Legislature, in behalf of the people 
of the Commonwealth, do hereby solemnly protest against the acquisition of 
any additional territory, without an express provision by Congress, that there 
shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in such territory otherwise 
than for the punishment of crime. 

At the same session — to conclude this recapitulation of 
sectional remonstrances — by another series, approved April 
26th, 1847, the legislature 

Resolved, That the present war with Mexico has its primary origin in the 
unconstitutional annexation to the United States of the foreign State of 
Texas * * * that it must be regarded as a war against freedom, against 
humanity, against justice, against the Union, against the Constitution, af/aitist 
the free States. * * * that a regard for the fair fame of our country, for 
the principles of morals, and for that righteousness which exalteth a nation, 
sanctions and requires all constitutional efforts for the destruction of the un- 
just influence of the slave power, and for the abolition of slavery within the 
limits of the United States. 

The resolutions also contained a general declaration, to 
the effect, that all the high and imperative motives above 
suggested called upon the country to retire fi'om the position 
of aggression which it tlien occupied towards the sister re- 
public of Mexico.^ It does not appear whether Mexico de- 

* Mexico, with which power we were at war, is amiably spoken of as a 
" sister republic ; " while Texas, which had then been a member of the Union 



152 OEIGESr OF THE LATE -WAE. 

rived any encouragement from this particular set of resolves, 
passed by one of the legislative bodies of a country with 
which she was then at war. It is certain, however, in spite 
of the whole series, so earnestly promulgated for so many 
successive sessions, that at the election of President the very 
next year (1848), the people of Massachusetts chose electors 
for General Taylor, a slaveholder and a citizen of a slavehold- 
ing State, and a victorious commander in the war just so elo- 
quently denounced ; a war, too, which had itself been the result 
of the admission of the slave State of Texas into the Union.' 

The qviestion naturally arises here : Had the Legislature 
of Massachusetts, therefore, been absolutely insincere in its 
deliberate and repeated manifestoes on this subject ? Or had 
it, through misapprehension, or, as Governor Marcy remarked 
to the New York Legislature, on " some less justifiable prin- 
cijDle," so singularly misrepresented the sentiments of the 
peoi^le ? Unquestionably, not a little of the fervor exhibited 
by both the Democratic and Whig politicians of the State, 
in the cause of antislavery, is to be attributed to the peculiar 
condition and relations of the several parties in Massachu- 
setts, at the period in question. The " third party " was, in 
fact, the field of their operation, and its intermediate position 
furnishes the key to their legislative action. The policy of 
the Whigs and Democrats alike was, to detach adherents 
from the ranks of the Liberty men, if possible, in order to 
swell their own respective numbers, and to settle for that 
one which should be most successful in the political game 
the party supremacy, which was somcAvhat tremulously 
balanced between the two. 

To elFect this object, it was essential to concede some- 

for a year and a half, and revolted from Mexico for the maintenance of its re- 
publican institutions, when Mexico became subject to a dictator, is referred to 
as if in its former condition of a "foreign state." 

' The popular vote in Massachusetts stood: for Taylor (Whig), 61,072; 
for Cass (Democratic), 35,284 ; for Van Buren ( Liberty party), 38,138. Not 
long afterwards, the Democrats of Massachusetts coalesced with the Liberty 
party to break down the Whigs. 



THE LIBERTY PARTY ALWAYS SECTIONAL, 153 

thing of political principle, for the occasion, in favor of the 
professed moral principle of those whom they sought to con- 
ciliate ; but who, it can hardly be imagined, were more really 
conscientious than themselves. For this third partyTind dis- 
carded the chimerical theories of the earlier abolitionists, 
who supp'osed that they could remove slavery from the land 
by the ingenious method of flooding the section in which it 
existed with denunciatory and vitiiperative pamphlets, in- 
tended to work favorably upon the sympathies of the slave- 
holders, by informing them how utterly devoid they were of 
all claim to human and Christian communion with their fel- 
low creatures.^ On the contrary, the Liberty party had 
originated the imqualifiedly sectional idea. It had conceived 
the plan of finally erecting a gigantit; antislavery power in 
the Xorth, which should compel the unwilling submission of 
the South to its purjioses, and it proposed to carry out this 
plan by political agencies. Their antislavery sentiment was 
an offshoot, or the bequest of the old Pui-itan intolerant 
spirit, self-conscious of no blemish of its own, but uneasily 
seeking for some spot elsewhere, upon which it might fasten 
itself and scrub it up into cleanliness, or a sore. It could hoi 
bear the thouglit of letting the wheat and the tares grow to- 
gether unto the appointed day.'^ That its proceedings were 
prompted by no emotions of humanity, is evinced by its 
utter indifference to the actual fate of the negro. If it ever 
cared at all for him as a slave, the whole subsequent con- 
duct of itself and its inheritors has shown that it cared noth- 
ing for him as a man. It was selfishness and not philanthropy 
which boiled over at the springs of its action. For how 
could philanthropy persistently and relentlessly urge on 

* History is said to repeat itself. Thus, in the year 1566, the Protestants 
of the Netherlands conceived that a shipment of thirty thousand Calvinistic 
tracts to Seville, for the conversion of the Spanish Catholics, would help them 
to withstand the formidable power of Philip II. 

^ Eventually, it proved that they had to a large extent abandoned religion 
andJ"ound a substitute in fanaticism ; or, the latter unclean spirit, entering into 
the house, had devoured its original tenant. 



154 OEIGIJSr OF THE LATE WAE. 

measures, Avhich it was evideut could lead only to that most 
fearful of all human calamities, civil war ? And this, too, 
with the frightful prospect staring the philanthropist in the 
face, that servile war must also, in all probability, add its 
unspeakable horrors to the revolting spectacle of cr-uelty and 
terror presented by an internecine strife ? 

It could have been only party lust of power and the in- 
cidents of power, whiph thus made hair-brained men and 
unsexed women its tools, and brought philanthropy, senti- 
mentality, disordered minds and hearts of wax, loose reason- 
ing and incapacity to reason, infidelity, and all the countless 
forms of restless radicalism, likely to run rampant in demor- 
alized popular institutions, into i^ insatiable service. For, 
surely, they can nev^r be rationally thought of as the 
"friends of enlightened humanity," who, with whatever 
motive for seeking questionable good by means of certain 
evil, could contemplate unmoved, and could even excite the 
causes, which must inevitably inflict upon their native land 
calamities the most direful and irreparable in the harshest 
catalogue of deplorable human experiences. 



CHAPTER VI . 

fho Whig Party and Democratic Party compete -with each other for Liberty Party Votes. 
— "The Higher Law." — The "Slave Power." — The Uniformly Superior Physical 
Power of the North. — Mr. Cass and Mr. Seward in the Senate. — President Taylor. — 
Condition of Slavery. — National Greatness does not consist in the Extent of Popu- 
lation, or any mere Physical Causes. 

If politics were, indeed, strictly identical with the science of 
morals, then political parties would be bound to frame their 
organizations with distinct reference to the clearest theory 
of moral sentiments ; and then, too, religion might bear a 
controlling part in it, and exercise that poAver which it has 
often employed, when a sect, in the name of religion, has 
swayed the councils of the State. But though by no means 
inconsistent with the theory or practice of the highest mo- 
rality, this is not the object of politics, which is the science 
of government ; and in the United States, that government 
was based ujDon certain definite principles established by its 
Constitution. With those principles the moral notions of 
the Liberty party were inconsistent ; and they finally pre- 
tended to justify themselves upon the theory of " a higher 
law," imagined for themselves ; the dictates of which were 
repugnant not merely to the casual legislation, but to the 
fundamental law of the land. The consequences were seen 
in the seditious acts and outrages which finally marked the 
progress of these licentious doctrines. 

At length, in Massachusetts and elsewhere at the North, 
it became a contest between the leading parties, as to which 
should go farthest in pursuit of the common object, and 
outdo the others in the warmth and strength of the expres- 



156 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

sions employed, on the one side and the othei*, in their legis- 
lative manifestoes. The natural result was, that each 
weakened its own position, and lost its own adherents to 
the third party, instead of strengthening itself. The posi- 
tive element got the better of the negative. There were 
those of both the Democratic and the Whig organizations 
who constantly remonstrated against this suicidal and un- 
principled policy, from the beginning ; but their more saga- 
cious counsels were unheeded by the temporizing politicians, 
who either would not, or could not see the consequences to 
which it must lead. In this struggle to win the popular 
vote, therefore, sprang up and grew those factious appeals 
to mere sentiment and passion, in disregard of more sober 
addresses to reason and conviction, which ought to govern the 
deliberate conduct of a free people, in high matters of state, 
profoundly affecting their immediate and future welfare. 

It was in this way that politics became gradually so de- 
generate among the masses of even intelligent persons at the 
North. In fact, it was a descent from the highest civil 
state of man to the lowest ; because, in a republic, whenever 
the popular mind becomes debased, or even indifferent, no 
check remains to the natural tendency to corruption in 
political affairs. For in these personal responsibility seems 
so much divided, that in i-egard to them men do not always 
act upon those nice considerations which they would apply 
to their private relations. Without meaning to institute any 
disparaging comparison, it may be remarked with justice, 
that the middle class of men at the South, whether owing to 
larger leisure, or to whatever cause, have in general more 
closely attended to, and more clearly understood, the princi- 
ples of our government than the same class at the North. 
In the former quarter, most persons would ride many miles, 
if necessary, to vote at every election ; while in the latter, 
nothing has been more common, than for men of fortune and 
education to avoid the trouble of stepping into the voting 
place, though almost at their very doors. Thus, too often, 
the field of active operation has been thrown wide open to 



ORIGIN OF THE PHKASE " SLAVE POWER." 157 

au inferior order of claimants for popular favor, and ordinary 
persons have gained the public places once occupied by the 
abler and higher-minded statesmen of another day. 

In fact, there can be no question, that, while the North, 
until a comparatively recent date, was in part represented in 
Congress by members inferior to no statesmen in any coun- 
try or any age, the Northern standard of qualification had 
become very sensibly lessened, at a period when the South 
was more careful to place in positions so resj^onsible her citi- 
zens of the most eminent ability, the largest experience, and 
most thorough training in public business. 

There seems to be no other rational mode of accounting 
for the oi'igin of an expression, first officially employed, it is 
believed, in one of the resolves passed by the Legislature of 
Massachusetts, in April, 1847. It is therein alleged, that the 
highest motives which could possibly commend themselves 
to patriotic and conscientious citizens, both sanction and re- 
quire " all constitutional efibrts for the destruction of the 
unjust influence of the slave power, and for the abolition of 
slavery within the limits of the United States." Nothing can 
be more obvious, than that the proposition contained within 
the latter clause of this passage was false both to the spirit 
and the letter of the Constitution ; Avhich was itself founded 
upon the recognition of slavery, " witliin the limits of the 
United States," and upon two several provisions for its main- 
tenance.' This, therefore, was rank abolitionism, in plain 
rcA'olt against the Constitution. 

Indeed, this coupling of the " abolition of slavery " with 
the alleged " slave power," clearly betrays the fact that the 
former, though conveniently shielded by a formal profession, 
was the real object in view. The point made in the first part 
of the extract against " the slave power," so called, deserves 
an impartial consideration, that it may appear what was the 
real character and condition of an alleged predominant and 

' The compromise in regard to taxation and representation, and tlie clause 
providing for tlie delivery of fugitive slaves. 



158 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

" unjust " force, which was thought to call for such eftbrts 
(though they could not be constitutional) for its destruction. 
The expression itself appealed, with no little vivacity, to the 
imaginations of the excitable portions of the community, to 
whom it presented the idea of some undefined but portentous 
monster ; and this impression undoubtedly exercised a vast 
influence in promoting the struggles and final disasters of the 
country. 

After the admission of both Texas and California into the 
Union, in 1850, there were sixteen free States and fifteen 
slave States, reckoning among the latter DelaAvare, which 
was only nominally in that category. This condition of the 
case secured a majority of Senators from the free States. 
Upon questions supposed to involve any test of opinions, the 
Senators of Delaware had usually acted with tlie Northern 
members. Thus, in 1845, Messrs. John M. Clayton and 
Thomas Clayton were in the minority of 14, upon the final 
vote for the admission of Texas. In 1850, their successors, 
Messrs. Spruance and Wales, voted with the majority for the 
admission of California, as one of the compromise measures 
of that period. According to the census taken in 1850, the 
Federal representative population of the United States 
amounted to 21,767,673. The representative population of 
the free States, by the tables of the same census, had risen to 
13,435,931 ; leaving, therefore, to the slave States but 8,331,- 
742. The preponderance, in this respect, had been imiformly 
with the North from the period of the first census in 1790, 
and at every later enumeration, the ratio had rapidly in- 
creased ; until the very great disparity had grown up which 
has just been S2:)ecified. The Rio Grande, the boundary be- 
tween Mexico and Texas, might be considered as the extreme 
limit of the extension of the United States in a southerly di- 
rection. Westerly of Texas lay the Territories of New Mex- 
ico and California. The principal part of one of these, and 
about half of the other, were situated below the line of 
36° 30' north latitude; but in neither of them was there 
slavery, except, perhaps, a score or two of slaves in the first- 



THE -SLAVE POWER A BUGBEAK. 159 

named Territory, and both of tliem were ill-adapted to slave 
labor by the conditions of Nature. 

It is true, that, upon the annexation of Texas, it was stip- 
ulated that four additional States might be formed out of its 
extensive domain, either with or without slavery, as the 
people asking admission, in each State situated below the 
compromise line, might j^refer. But the number of its inhab- 
itants was then less than 200,000, while New York, for exam- 
ple, had at the same time nearly 3,000,000; so that any 
question of rivalry in those additional States might be deemed 
faii'ly relegated to a period somewhat remote. Besides this 
not very encouraging prospect for " the slave power," there 
remained the immense Western domain of the United States, 
north of the compromise line, with room for the seat of half a 
dozen great empires, and out of small poi'tions of which half a 
dozen free States have subsequently been formed and admitted 
to the Union. In this definite view of the case, and in relation 
to the evident prospects of the countiy, " the slave power," 
thus factiously or ignorantly called up by partisans and 
fanatics, may justly be pronounced the most preposterous 
phantom ever evoked, to spread needless alarm and to work 
incalculable and irretrievable mischief; to disturb and break 
up the peace of a nation, prosperous and blest beyond all 
parallel ; to scar the land with the deei>trenched wounds of 
fraternal strife, and to spread a cloud of impenetrable shad- 
ows over its once benignant and smiling future. In point 
of fact, at the very moment that this ill-omened cry of " the 
slave power" was raised, the South was entirely dependent, 
even for the ability to resist assaults, upon the justice and 
right feeling of the friends of the Constitution and the Union, 
whether Whigs or Democrats, in the North. 

It is obvious, therefore, that this ominous " slave power," 
which was made the instrument of exciting such fanciful 
dread at the North, could not .have been the comparatively 
insignificant body of 300,000 or 400,000 actual slaveholders 
in the South, in competition with the millions of qualified 
voters in the free States. It was simply a party cry, raised 



160 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAR. 

against the natural, lawful, and just alliance between the 
lovers of the Union in both sections; and who wei'C its 
lovers, not only from the sympathies and affections which had 
grown up and been fostered by friendly intercourse and com- 
munity of service in peace and in war, and by pride in the 
glory and matured vigor of their native land ; but from the 
sacred obligations which bound them, in duty, in judgment, 
and in feeling, to its organic and fundamental law.' 

This was, in fact, the power which the radicals and fanatics 
strove to break down. One of the most conspicuous of the 
Whig politicians of that day, who has since that time been 
more conspicuous still on the Republican side, and who is 
not among the least responsible for the causes which brought 
on the war, explained this matter clearly enough, in the course 
of a highly interesting debate in the Senate, in April, 1850. 
In reference to certain remarks of Mr. SeAvard, on the floor 
of the Senate, Mr. Cass observed : 

" If I understood the Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), he inthnated 
his belief that it was immoral to carry into effect the provision of the Consti- 
tution for the recapture of fugitive slaves. There, sir, is a very strange view 
of the duties of a Senator in this body. No man should come here who be- 
lieves that ours is an immoral Constitution ; no man should come here, and 
by the solemn sanction of an oath, promise to support an immoral Constitu- 
tion. No man is compelled to take an oath to support it. He may hve in 
this country and believe what he chooses in regard to the Constitution ; but 
he has no right as an honest man to seek office and obtain it, and then talk 
about its being so immoral that he cannot fulfil his obligations. It is the 
duty of every man, who has sworn to support the Constitution, fairly to carry 
its provisions into effect ; and no man can stand up before his fellow-citizens and 
maintain any other doctrine, whatever reasons he may urge in his vindication. 
* * * In one of the most disingenuous portions of the speech of the 
honorable Senator from New York — which itself was one of the most disin- 

' This sentiment of patriotism, which long bound the two sections so 
closely together, and while it existed was an insuperable obstacle to the de- 
signs of the fanatics, became, therefore, an object of slurring remark with the 
ideological orators. Their system orbcnevolence was so much expanded as 
to be very thin in every part, and did not admit of that local attachment to 
one's native land which has animated men's souls to noble achievements 
everywhere, iu evei-y age. 



MK. CASS ON ME. SEWAED. 161 

geuuous I have ever heard — he speaks of " slavery having a reliable and ac- 
commodating ally in a party of the free States," and he says, he " bears witness 
to its fidelity to the interests of slavery." * * * Now, I ask the Senator 
from New York, if he believes there is one in this Senate from the North, 
whose course is influenced by liis fideUty to slavery ; and if he does, what right 
he has to cast odium upon gentlemen who are associated with him in the high 
duties which belong to his position ? " 

Mr. Sewakd. — The Senator addresses a question to me, and I rise for no 
other purpose than to answer it. I thmk it was Mr. Jefferson who said that 
the natural ally of slavery in the South was the Democracy of the North. 
I have heard it attributed to Mr. Jefferson. However this may be, I believe it. 

Mr. FooTE denied that Mr. Jefferson ever said it. 

Mr. Cass. — I will not touch upon that question ; but I will ask the Sen- 
ator from New York in relation to another point — and that is, if he meant 
it in the sense which Mr. Jefferson, or whoever may have said it, intended ? 
The one was intended as a commendation for their attachment to constitu- 
tional principles ; the other as a slur upon a great party. 

Sir. Sevtard. — I answer promptly and freely ; I had no intention of cast- 
ing reproach upon, or of reflecting upon, any member of this board, or any 
person anywhere. The remark had no such connection. I ask leave now to 
say, that such as I have described is, in my view, the poUtical organization of 
the parties of this coimtry ; that slavery has the support, the toleration (given 
honestly and from patriotic motives, I admit) of the party to which I referred : 
and that its alliance with slavery constitutes its tower of strength. On the 
other hand, the party to j\hich I belong is a pai'ty which is more distinctly 
identified with the progress of the sentiment of freedom or emancipation, and 
therefore it is weaker in its alliance with the South. * * * j will do the 
Whig party the justice or the injustice to say, that I have been a member of 
it all my active life ; and I will do it the great disservice to say that, no mat- 
ter what may happen, and whoever may put me under the ban, I shall be the 
last to leave it, however individuals may disown me, or the principles I main- 
tain. I shall adhere to it, because I think, of the two great parties, it is (he 
most devoted to the cause of freedom and emancipation. I will, however, do the 
Whig party the justice, if it be such, to say that these sentiments of mine 
upon that point are not in accordance with the sentiments of that party 
throughout the whole country — that I do not profess to speak for it, but for 
myself alone. I have, however, great hopes that the Whig party and the 
party claiming to be the party of progress, to which I refer, and ultimately all 
parties, will come to precisely the same conclusions which arc the guide and 
governing principles of my own conduct. 

Mr. Cass. — I was going to remark that, with respect to the creed of the 
Wliig party, or the orthodoxy of the Senator from New York, it is a matter 
with which I have no concern ; but with respect to progress I have something 



162 OKIGESr OF THE LATE WAR. 

to say. My "progress is within the Constitution. My age of progress is cir- 
cumscribed there. K the Senator from New York is going out of it, I do 
not believe in his progress at all. No, sir ! My object is to support the 
Constitution which, under God, is the source of our prosperity and happiness. 

Mr. Seward (in his seat). — That is mine. 

Mr. Cass. — The Senator from New York says that also is his object. If 
it is, I think he has a strange way of showing it, by pronouncing it immoral, 
and denying the validity of its obligations. It would last scarcely a day if 
that Senator, with this avowed principle of action, had the direction of the 
Government. I don't say that it would be dissolved immediately, but the 
seeds of dissolution would be sown, and would ripen into a harvest of mis- 
fortune as speedily as the rankest vegetation gains maturity under a tropical 
sun.^ 

So far as appears from Mr. Seward's replies, on this occa- 
sion, the sole tie which bound him to the Whig party of that 
period, was its more thorough devotion " to the cause of 
freedom and emancipation " — that is, to the doctrines of the 
abolitionists. For, since emancipation was not within the 
scope of the Constitution, or in any degree at the dispo- 
sition of the Government of the United States, " the cause of 
emancipation " could mean nothing else than that revolution 
of the Government for which the abolitionists were striving. 
Revolution, with its dread attendants, caii be justified only 
by oppression ; and the power of oppression was not with the 
South, even supposing it had the disposition to exercise it. 

In fact, Mr. Seward, shortly before this discussion took 
place, had voted for the reception of a petition for the disso- 
lution of the Union, in company with only two other mem- 
bers of the Senate, Mr. Hale and Mr. Chase ; to which fact 
farther reference is had in a succeeding page of this volume. 
"What " progress " the Senator from New York made in ten 
years from that time, were any further advance needed, may 
appear from a remark or two in a speech delivered by him, in 
Boston, in the summer of 1860 : - 

" What a commentary upon the history of man is the fact that, eighteen 
years after the death of John Quincy Adams, the people have for their stand- 
ard-bearer Abraham Lincoln, confessing the obligations of the Higher Law, 

* Abridgment of Debates, vol. xvii., pp. 440, 441. 



MK. JOnX QUmCY ADAMS. 163 

wMch the Sage of Quincy proclaimed, and contending for weal or woe, for 
life or death, in the irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery ! I 
Sesire only to say, that we are in the last stage of the conflict, before the 
great triumphant inauguration of this policy into the Government of the 

United States." 

la one respect, certainly, this singular piece of decla- 
mation is at least as disingenuous as tbe speech denounced 
by Mr. Cass. For, unbending as Mr, Adams notoriously 
was in following out liis own ideas of obligation, he was 
any thing but one of those to be justly characterized, in 
general, as a prophet of the Higher Law. No one can think 
of hira as an inheritor of the speculative vagaries of the 
French Jacobins and Terrorists of 1792; of a class aptly 
enough answering to Virgil's description of Rumor, with its 
head enveloped in the clouds, while its feet oscillate upon 
the earth ; whose region of the Higher Law is only relatively 
above that of ordinary thought, by being removed from the 
sphere of reason and experience, as the inhabitants of Mil- 
ton's " Limbo" arc neither of heaven nor earth ; a region 
which, obscured by perpetual mist, may well exemplify the 
saying : " When the light within is darkness, how great is 
that darkness ! " 

Unquestionably, Mr. Adams felt deeply aggrieved at the 
abandonment of himself by his Democratic supporters, in 
favor of General Jackson, as Mr. Van Buren also resented 
the preference shown by the same party to Mr. Polk ; and it 
is well known, that the former long entertained the expecta- 
tion of an absolute severance between the North and the 
South, and held to the right of secession.' There was a very 

* " But the indissoluble link of union between the people of the several 
States of this confederated nation is, after all, not in the right, but in the 
heart. If the day sliould ever coine (may Heaven avert it !) when the aifec- 
tions of the people of these States shall be alienated from each other, when 
the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold iudifference, or collisions of interest 
shall fester into hatred, the bands of political association will not, long hold 
together parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated interests 
and kindly sympathies ; and far better will it be for the people of the disunited 
States to part in friendship from each other, than to be held together by con- 



164: OEIGLSr OF THE LATE WAE. 

great clifFerence between Mr, Adaras in his calmer moments 
and the same person when, infuriated by conflict in the 
House, he poured forth rather the bitterness of his own y>o- 
litical disajjpointments, than the sober convictions of his 
reason. No contrast could exist more striking, than in the 
conception of Mr. Adams, the dignified President of the 
United States, thinking and acting in entire concert with 
Mr. Clay, his Secretary of State, on the one hand ; and, on 
the other, Mr. Adams, as described by Mr. Seward, the chief 
guide and exemplar of common brawlers and disturbers of 
social order. 

There had been a change in his disposition, doubtless, 
during his later years. For instance, in 1831, he refused to 
support a petition for the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, on 'the ground of the inexpediency and impro- 
priety of meddling with the subject. ' In 1836, he advocated 
the admission of Arkansas as a slave State ; " Ai-kansas, 
therefore," he said, " comes and has a right to come into the 
Union, with her slaves and her slave laws." But, in 1843, 
after a speech, the sentiments of which had far surpassed the 
bounds of reason and moderation, in reply to a question by 
a member, whether he was ready for abolition, " no matter 
though five millions of the South perish " — he exclaimed, in 
his seat, " Five hundred millions, let it come ! " This was 
the " Higher Law," with a vengeance ! which would consent 
to the absolute destruction of one-half the human race, and 
with the same reason, to that of the whole ; except that ex- 
ceedingly small portion of it, comparatively, which it would 
enfranchise with novel liberties ! It would be like the coun- 
sel of the fiend against the Almighty — 

with hell-fire 



To waste His whole creation — 

for, surely, a world given up entirely to the negro race could 
not be very different from the desolate confusion of pande- 
monium itself. 

etraint." — From Address of Mr. Adams, before the New York Historical So- 
ciety, in 1839. 



DECLINE OF THE LIBERTY PARTY, IN 1852. 165 

But in that announcement of Mr. Seward, in its reference 
to pending events and the prospects of the future, was the 
voice of the Ibattlc-trumpet, the clash of swords and the ter- 
rible rumble of the carriages of war. Yet putting aside, for 
the moment, the question of policy thus early and distinctly 
declared by the expectant Secretary, as the guiding and 
determined principle of his party — "the irrepressible conflict 
between freedom and slavery," that is to say, necessarily, 
between the North and the South — which could hardly be 
regarded by the one section and understood by the other, as 
any thing else than a desperate threat of no peaceful strug- 
gle to come — it may be remarked, that even such a conflict, 
if " irrepressible," might still have been kept within due 
bounds, as it had been for nearly seventy years, but for the 
resolute purpose of a dominant party ; and need never have 
been fatal in its progress and its consequences.* For not- 
withstanding those extreme opinions avowed by Mr. Seward, 
for which he was rebuked by the venerable Senator from 
Michigan — and, in spite of those auguries of his own which 
he had afterwards so mx;ch influence in working up to their 
fulfilment — it is certain that the condition of the two great 
parties, in their relations to the common cause of the coun- 
try, was better and stronger, in the year 1852, than it had 
been for years before the adoption of the compromise meas- 
ures of 1850. At the election of 1848, the Liberty party 
had cast 290,078 votes for its candidate, the ex-Democi-at, 
Mr. Van Buren. At the election of 1852, though a much 
larger popular vote was thrown, that for the ex-Democrat, 
Mr. Hale, who was then, in the figurative language of Mr. 
Seward, the standard-bearer of the party, fell off" to 157,290. 
The Democrats were exultant at the recovery of power, and 

' In regard to powers or rights under the Constitution, derived from it only 
by inference, different persons might with propriety entertain different opinions ; 
but to set up a " Higher Law," or an " irrepressible conflict," or a " sacred 
animosity," against an express and clearly intelligible provision of the Consti- 
tution, was simply treason, in a moral sense, though only an overt act is made 
such, in a logal sense, by the terms of the instrument. 



166 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

aftei'wards unfortunately conceived that it would bear almost 
any strain upon it ; and the Whigs of the South, with more 
than Roman virtue, considering the temptations to fall away, 
had nohly vindicated their fidelity to principle and their dis- 
regard of sectional influences, in concert with their ancient 
allies of the North. 

Mr. Pierce, the candidate of the Democrats in that politi- 
cal campaign, had uniformly exhibited entire constancy to 
his party relations, without the slightest compliance with sec- 
tional pretensions. It was alleged of General Scott, the candi- 
date of the Whigs, at a time when it was not unlikely to have 
some influence at the South, that his opinions m regard to sla- 
very had a specially Northern tendency ; though there was no 
actual ground for the intimation that he entertained any other 
sentiments on this point than those held by the leading 
members of the Whig party. Indeed, both he and his com- 
petitor were men of a spirit too thoroughly patriotic to be 
liable to any charge of preference of one section over the 
other. Both resided in free States, and both were well- 
known supporters of the Constitution and devoted lovers of 
the Union. The choice fell upon Mr. Pierce; though in a 
popular ballot, increased by nearly 300,000, in the course of 
four years, the vote for General Scott slightly exceeded that 
given to General Taylor in 1848. In fact, while the com- 
bined Whig and Democratic vote had risen from 2,876,164 
to 3,126,375, the -Freesoil vote had diminished from 291,678 
to 157,296, But it is worthy of note, considering the condi- 
tion of the times, that while the Democratic majority in the 
slave States was only about 79,000, in the free States it rose 
above 133,000 ; and that General Scott carried the majority 
in Kentucky and Tennessee as well as in Massachusetts and 
Vermont, while in three other of the slave States, Delaware, 
North Carolina, and Louisiana, the difference between the 
strength of the candidates amounted to little. 

It appeared in that election that a considerable body of 
the Whigs, wearied of sectional strife, and hoping to give it 
a decisive quietus, voted for the Democratic candidate ; 



CHAEACTEE OF PEESmENT TATLOE. 1G7 

while, in some of the Southern States, more than half of the 
party, affected by reasons already alluded to, yet unwilling 
to act with their former political opponents, declined to vote 
at all. But it is evident, from the recapitulation just given, 
that, up to this period, notwithstanding sectional differences, 
the two great parties had shown a striking fidelity to their 
organizations throughout the country, while the influence 
and numbers of the third party had suffered a most discour- 
aging diminution. But while one of the leading parties con- 
tinued, m the main, true to its principles, the other was un- 
dergoing a variety of mutations, all conducting to the com- 
mon disaster, in the end. In order to present this matter 
clearly, it is necessary, in some brief measure, to retrace the 
course of this inquiry. 

In the election of 1848, notwithstanding the admission of 
Texas and the war which ensued, General Taylor had been 
elected President by large Northern majorities. Singularly 
enough, four of the six New England States, namely, Massa- 
chusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, together 
with every one of the Middle and Border States, except Vir- 
ginia, namely. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
Avare, Maryland, Tennessee, and Kentucky, chose Whig 
electors. The fourteen slave States, excluding Delaware, 
were equally divided between the two candidates, though 
by small majorities ; while the entire tier of Western free 
States, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wiscon- 
sin, manifested their preference in a body for the Democratic 
candidate. 

The new President, like all army ofiicers of his day, who 
felt themselves standing in pecuhar and delicate relations to 
the common country, had previously formed no particular 
party alliance. He was known, however, to have been op- 
posed to the measures which led to the war, but had warmly 
enlisted popular enthusiasm in his behalf, by his brilliant and 
victorious conduct of his part of the campaigns. In reply to 
an inquiry made of him, after his nomination, he had em- 
ployed an expression which took strongly with large masses 



168 oEiam of the late wae. 

of the people, in declaring himself " a Whig and a quarter 
over^ There had been little in the experience of his past 
life fitted to train him for civil service, or to render him par- 
ticvdarly conversant with national politics ; but he was pos- 
sessed of strong sense, a firm jjurpose, a kind nature, irre- 
proachable integrity of character, and the cajDacity and habit 
of command.^ It was said that among his not very exten- 
sive stiidies, outside of his profession, he was a reader of 
Plutarch; and to those who knew him well, there seemed 
many traits of his prompt, plain, and honest character, not 
unlike those attributed to some of his more primitive heroes 
by that entertaining biographer. The general sentiment in- 
spired by President Taylor was one of personal afiection and 
extreme good will. He was a Southern man, with broadly 
national principles and feelings, who had rendered distin- 
guished public service, and who could desire nothing but the 
unqualified public good. His administration began, there- 
fore, under auspices calculated to discourage sectional pur- 
poses, come from whatever quarter they might, and to inter- 
pose insuperxible obstacles to the spread and effectual opera- 
tion of fanatical sentiments. 

President Taylor survived his inauguration but little more 
than a year. He had soon found himself importuned by 
some of his leading Southern supporters, to lend his oflicial 
influence to measures looking directly to tlie advancement of 
supposed Southern interests. But, as he had pubhcly declared, 

' General Scott, in his recently published " Autobiography," relates an in- 
teresting instance of General Taylor's high sense of pecuniary obligation. It 
seems that the latter, during a period of exciting speculation in Kentucky, 
had been induced to endorse for a friend to a larga amount. The friend, with 
many others at the time, was ruined. In the mean time, a " stay-law " had 
been passed by the legislature of the State, which had also put in circulation 
certain biUs of credit of its own, of no actual value, with which the indorser 
might have paid the debt, if he did not choose to take advantage of the stay- 
law. But General Taylor, then a colonel under Scott's command, asked for a 
short leave of absence, procured specie, took it with him to Louisville, and 
with it fully discharged the honorary obligation. 



THE WAITERS ON PROVmENCE. . 169 

before his nomination, that he would not consent to stand 
fey office as a merely party candidate, so he was resolved to 
allow no sectional bias to control him as President. Satis- 
factory as this agreeable state of things would naturally be 
to the masses of the people, it tended rather to inflame, than 
to check the efforts of the radical leaders. There had grown 
up in Northern communities, at that period, a class of men, 
generally styling themselves Democrats, but who, in the 
fluctuating condition of the two principal parties, in several 
of the States, scarcely knew on which side to range them- 
selves. They were sincerely anxious for place, but entirely 
indifferent to political principle. They looked upon politics 
as a game, in which they hoped to get the winnings, and 
cared little what might " slide," so that the ground did not 
slide away from under their own feet. The triumjA of the 
Whigs, especially under a President so personally popular 
that the j^rospect of change at the expiration of his term of 
office looked any thing but flattering, placed them in an em- 
barrassing condition and filled them with gloomy forebodings. 
They had no care for national questions, except so far as 
these might be made to affect local politics favorably to 
themselves; and to this point they addressed themselves 
with all the zeal and ability they could summon. 

The time had been in the North, and esjjecially iu New 
England, when only persons of established character, re- 
spected or admired for more than ordinary qualities, could 
expect to attain any eminent public position. The re- 
markable influence whicfi Massachusetts, in particular, had 
enjoyed, had been very much owing to the popular regard 
for this principle of selection for office. Persons of this de- 
scription, however, would stoop to no base method of attain- 
ing place, and, at an earlier date, could not expect to win 
the popular favor, if they did ; but, in the change of manners, 
they stood no chance with adventurous claimants for office, 
who scrupled at no means likely to accomi^lish their objects. 
In the gradual withdrawal, therefore, of the higher class of 
men from a competition which seemed to them like personal 



170 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

degradation, the field was rendered much more clear for a 
less worthy order of contestants. In concert with the latter^ 
upon whom their political principles hung very loosely, were 
the outright fanatics, and, in general, the zealous advocates 
of antislavery doctrines; and radicals of every description 
were their natural allies. 

Most of the more eminent men of the State were distin- 
guished chiefs of the Whig party of Massachusetts, and its 
main body was composed, in general, of substantial and well- 
ordered citizens. In fact, it held a proud prominence in point 
of character and influence, and was sometimes sneered at by 
its opponents for its respectahility. More intelligent and 
considerate Democrats, at a later day, when its glory had 
departed, and the clouds of national disaster had begun to 
thicken on the horizon, bitterly dejilored any hand they 
might have had in hastening the downfall of an organization, 
which was such a pillar of strength to the national cause. 
One of the radicals of the day, who had been nurtured in the 
Whig party, and brought forward by its favor, and has since 
occupied a public position of importance, declared, in lan- 
guage originally a23plied to it from another quarter, that it 
should be pulled down, "if it were as pure as the angels in 
heaven;" and doubtless his confederates concurred in this 
pious sentiment. The effect of their efforts, in combination 
with other causes, was seen afterwards ; but at present they 
were doomed to disappointment. 

Actuated solely by the selfish hope of the spoils of ofiice, 
this factious set of men devoted themselves to any "cause 
of agitation which promised them the most abundant suc- 
cess at home. Utterly without principle themselves, they 
derided the idea of its influence over others. Not a few of 
them have subsequently been among the most active pro- 
moters of public commotion, and in the front ranks of the 
least dangerous places of the war. To suppose them impelled 
by any motives of philanthropy, or emotions of humanity, 
would be as impiously absurd as the deification of hypocrisy 
itself Nothing is easier than to harangue against oppression 



SLAYEKY NO REAL SOURCE OF ALAEM/ 171 

and cruelty, and the "slave power" afforded them a ready 
and an ample theme." 

The moral and political consideration, that the States of 
the Union constitutecTone country, under one goyerument, 
agreed to by all ; and that to stir up hostility against a part 
of the States, on account of an existing and ineradicable fact, 
was to begin a needless and unjust domestic quarrel against 
the M^elfare and peace of the whole — suggested to these per- 
sons no conscientious scruples ; or, if so, they paid such 
scruples no regard. Morally, they had no more concern 
with Southern slavery than the rest of the world. Politically, 
it was a matter of no real consequence to Northern interests, 
supposing that Northern interests were fairly entitled to re- 
gard, separately from the common good ; for, in reality, the 
North far surpassed the South in numbers and political power, 
to which every year was contributing a large increase. In 
combination with the outright abolitionists and the anti- 
slavery advocates, in general, they deluged the land with 
lectures and tracts, upon the threatening approaches of this 
terrific power, which, however boastfully, was yet actually 
trembling at the time for its own defence ; and, doubtless, in 
many a New England village, crowds of ignorant women 
clasped their children closer to their bosoms ; and men, scarce- 
ly better informed, listened with gaping mouths, in vague 
dread of the advance of a hypothetical monster, gloomy, 
coiling, and insatiable, Avhich, if not timely resisted, was 
soon to enclose the common country in its ferocious and fatal 
embrace. 

Is this picture in the least overcharged ? Such an idea 
as the following, presented in a speech by Mr. Seward, de- 
livered at Rochester, J^^. Y., at a somewhat later date (2oth 
of October, 1858), was well calculated to foster the idea, and 
stamp deeper the ajiprehension, and does credit to his rhetori- 
cal powers, however it may impress us in the light of philoso- 
phy or of fact : 

" Either the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina and the sugar 
plantations of Louisiana will be ultimately tilled by free labor, and Charleston 



172 OKIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

and New Orleans become the marts for legitimate merchandise alone, or else 
the rye fields and wheat fields of Massachusetts and New York must again he 
surrendered by their farmers to slave culture and the production of slaves, and 
Boston and A"ew York become once more marlatts for trade in the bodies and 
souls of mdh ! " ' 

The agitators and alarmists, on the score of " the slave 
power" hallucination, in general, animated by the vote 
vs^hich they had obtained in the late election, though insig- 
nificant in relation to the entire sum, renewed their efforts to 
stir up popular sentiment. There were other causes, result- 
ing from dissatisfaction in certain quarters, at the i:»ostpone- 
ment or neglect of the claims of competitors for the presi- 
dency, on both sides ; and especially at the preference 
accorded to General Taylor by the Whigs. These tended 
to the promotion of their objects. The new President was 
held up by Democrats, and by certain of the impracticable 
Whigs, as " an available candidate " merely ; as if his great 
popularity constituted his only pretensions to the exalted 
ofiice to which he had been chosen; and as if this well-earned 
popular favol", due to public acts known to all men, and to 
plain, but remarkable and admirable characteristics equally 
well understood, formed a reason against, instead of one of 
a substantial nature in support of his nomination." 

' There can be no doubt that this representation had a serious influence 
upon popular sentiment, except among those who were capable of distin- 
guishing its absurdity. For every one at all familiar with the subject is 
aware that rice fields cannot be tilled by white men, with any regard to 
human life, and cotton plantations and sugar plantations certainly to much 
less advantage than by blacks ; while, with respect to the rye fields and wheat 
fields specified, as to be again surrendered to slave culture, every one knows 
that they were never so used, except in quite a limited sense. As to the " pro- 
duction of slaves," it was a scandalous imputation without any grounds what- 
ever. The climate and nature of their products mainly regulated the kind 
of labor employed ia the two sections. In the South, the blacks were always 
principally laborers ia the country ; in the North, they were principally ser- 
vants in the cities and larger to\vns. 

^ How far his administration tended to justify the popular choice, during 
his brief term of office, appears in a very marked manner from the species of 
eulogy pronounced upon him, at its close, by leadmg Democrats in Congress, 



PLANS OF THE FEEESOILEES. 173 

This presentation of an unexceptionable candidate, of 
whose election there could he no doubt, was urged as a de- 
viation from true principle : especially by persons who had 
shown their own regard for principle by abandoning the 
great national oi-ganizatious v/ith which they had previously 
acted, and by connecting themselves in active cooperation 
with a faction, in the service t»f which they might hope for 
more speedy promotion. For, although the Whig party in 
Massachusetts, for example, had cast more than sixty thou- 
sand votes for General Taylor — on the other hand, the Free- 
soil vote had risen to nearly forty thousand. In the one, the 
standard for eminent office was yet quite beyond the pre- 
tensions of those, whose talents for agitation were repressed, 
while subject to its law, by the constitutional principles and 
action of their party associates. In the other, they were 
well qualified to take the lead ; and with such subjects of 
agitation at hand, and with such an aggregate of numbers 
already secured, it seemed by no means impossible, that, by 
active exertions, they might eventually obtain for the Free- 
soil pai'ty an actual plurality of the popular vote of the State. 
At all events, they were despondent of obtaining the objects 
of their ambition in the ranks of their own party, and they 
resolved, therefore, by whatever means, to break it down, 
and to build up another more conformable to their purposes, 
upon its ruins. In the mean time, the Whigs lived in a state 
of false security. They looked upon these factionists very 
much as Mr. Burke told the electors of Bristol he regarded 
the rage of his more violent opponents : " The highest flight 
of such clamorous birds is winged in an inferior region of 
the. air. We hear them, and we look upon them just as you, 
gentlemen, when you enjoy the serene air on your lofty rocks, 
look down upon the gulls, that skim the mud of your river, 
when it is exhausted of its tide." 

as well as leading Whigs. See speeches on the occasion, of Messrs. Webster, 
Cass, King, Berrien, and others in the Senate ; and of Messrs. Conrad, Win- 
throp. Baker, Hilliard, and others in the House, reported in Congressional 
Globe, and vol. xvi. of the " Abridgment of Debates." 



174 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

That profound theologian and philosopher, Bishop But- 
ler, is said to have suggested the idea, that, by possibility, 
all mankind are mad. Whatever conclusions might be justi- 
fied by careful speculation upon this point, it seems certain 
that the main body of a people may become so possessed of 
a delusion, as to approach very nearly to the confines of in- 
sanity. The Northern masses, who gave way to the anti- 
slavery excitement, acted upon false premises. A madman's 
conduct is rational enough upon the grounds which prompt 
his action. A child mounts a stick, and imagines himself on 
horseback. The range of a madman's fancies becomes cir- 
cumscribed, or morbidly enlarged, and he lives within his 
own circle of thoxight in relations to that alone. He assumes, 
for instance, that he is a king, and makes use of the best means 
at his command to indicate his royal dignity. Under the for- 
mer inhuman and ignorant mode of treatment practised tow- 
ards such unhappy patients, he would wrap his tattered blank- 
et around his 'naked limbs, in guise of a robe of state, and 
hold up a straw from his pallet for a mimic sceptre. That part 
of the Noi'thern population, out of whose ignorance and ex- 
citable temperament the antislavery agitation was worked 
uj) into a wide-spread hallucination, assumed, and was in- 
structed by those who knew better to assume, that negro 
slavery in the Southern States comprehended all the worst 
evils and vices of every description of bondage, in every na- 
tion and in every age. 

It was on this theory that multitudes conceived them- 
selves called upon to spare no pains to extinguish a system 
of such enormous wrong ; and that no human statutes could 
justly restrain them from the discharge of superior obliga- 
tions to the " Higher Law." The fault, or misfortune, was, 
that no real foundation existed for the assumption upon which 
they proceeded. Of all forms of involuntary restraint, under 
which one class of human beings is subjected to the control 
of another class, that exerted by Solithern masters and mis- 
tresses over their slaves was the mildest and least objection- 



A POPULAR EEEOR EXPLODED. 1Y5 

able.' The evidence of this fact is complete, from the rela- 
tions of numei'ous impartial foreign witnesses ; but the nega- 
tive evidence is still more conclusive ; for it is not known 
that, among the whole four millions of Southern blacks, any- 
one has been found to have complained of grievous wrong 
from his owner to the armies which have penetrated their 
country. Indeed, it had always been the practice of South- 
ern families, in their visits to the North, to be attended by 
their household servants of either sex ; and though the fa- 
natics spared no pains to entice them from their masters ; and 
though such Avas the condition of the law, at the period in 
question, and the mode of its administration, that freedom, 
when they were on Northern soil, was really at their own 
option, the instances were almost unknown of such slaves 
abandoning the service to which they were accustomed, and 
to which it may, hence, be assumed, they were attached. 

It is equally certain, that the aggregate number of those 
who were seduced from their homes by the unceasing efforts 
of the abolitionists, during a series of years, was really in- 
considerable. When the troops of the United States took 
possession of St. Helena, Port Royal, and finally of Beau- 
fort, in South Carolina, early in the war, Northern chaplains 
wrote home letters, which were published, expressing their 
surj^rise that they saw no mulattoes or children of mixed 
races in that quarter. The statement was grudgingly re- 
ceived by many, who had held up the idea of widely preva- 
lent habits of licentiousness in the Southern States. A little 
reflection, elevated and instructed by a certain degree of 
charity, might have led to the conclusion, that where tempta- 
tions of the kind alluded to had the longest existed, among 
a Christian people, the social guards would be likely to be 
the most strict. Allowing for all excejitional cases of the 
kind, certainly Southern matrons and maids would be far 
from submitting to the insult implied in any such promiscu- 
ous concubinage ; and it is well known that white men lost 

' See Webster, 7th March Speech, pamphlet edition, p. 3. 



176 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

caste at the South, who were notoriously guilty of such a 
vicious way of life. During the whole "progress of the long 
struggle, even after the President had promulgated his decree 
of emancipation, and when the armies of the United States 
had their most widely extended possession of the Southern 
territory, no symptom of insurrection is known to have 
manifested itself among the slaves. This fact shows either 
great indifference to the boon of freedom, on their part, or a 
singular degree of control exercised over them by their 
masters ; perhaps both. 

But no more striking exemplification could be furnished, 
of that former contentment or quiet state of things, on one 
side of the Southern line, and of the state of opinion among 
a certain class of persons, on the other side, than in the 
"raid" of John Brown. That fanatic imagined that he 
could stir up an insurrection capable of overtlii'owing " the 
slave power," with a force of twenty-one men ! Biit, al- 
though with the advantage of a year's residence on the 
Virginia border, not a slave joined his band. In like man- 
ner, during the late war, it was chiefly from plantations 
abandoned by their proprietors, as the army advanced, that 
the negroes followed in the rear of its march, more for the 
sake of precarious relief to their present misery, thus pro- 
duced, than from any definite idea of civil regeneration. In 
most cases, the " sudden wrench " from a state of comforta- 
ble maintenance to one of helpless independence must have 
produced an utte? confusion of faculties inadequate to the 
exigencies of their novel condition ; and it seems certain, 
that those who thus perished from helplessness and hopeless- 
ness and want, and the diseases incident to want and despair, 
are to be reckoned by not a few hundreds of thousands. 

It is not necessary to consider the system of negro 
slavery, in the United States, as one of unmixed good — sup- 
posing such a human lot in this -world were possible — in 
order to conceive that it had its alleviations ; or that, how- 
ever repulsive the idea of slavery of any description might 
be to a white citizen unaccustomed to observe its operation ; 



NATIONAL GREATNESS MOEAL, NOT PHYSICAL. 177 

yet, to a negro in the South, the benefits of such a condition 
fai' outweighed its drawbacks and disadvantages. To the 
white citizen, indeed, the grave question at hand presents 
itself in an aspect raised infinitely above any temporary or 
pereonal considerations. By bestowing freedom on the 
negro, with all the consequences of freedom, the structure 
of the republic is to be settled upon a different basis from 
that contemplated by its founders, and upon which it had 
risen to splendor and renown. Under the administration of 
the superior race, its future of prosperity and glory might 
be deduced from the history of the past. If trammelled with 
the embarrassments inseparable from the mixture in its pub- 
lic affairs of a numerous race, intellectually and physically 
inferior, the introduction of a new and more formidable 
source of discord cannot fail to be the consequence. Its 
action will be disarranged, its progress checked, its position 
degraded. Immense physical force it may have, for a time, 
but its moral superiority will be gone. It will fall in the 
'scale of nations, as the most powerful empires have hereto- 
fore fallen, and may see its proud preeminence exchanged for 
the secret, if not the open, derision of the world. Thus, the 
Chinese Empire, comprising a territory of immense extent, 
and a population double that of all Europe — distinguished 
in agricultural pursuits, skilful in those of commerce, ingeni- 
ous and successful in cultivating many of the curious and 
most of the more useful arts of life, and inferior to few 
nations in diplomatic management and tact — is yet at the 
mercy of single Eurojiean powers, for Avant of homogeneity 
of race, of an all-pervading sentiment of nationality, of the 
pride and vigor of a people animated by common memories 
and hopes, of an enlightened patriotism inspired by the eleva- 
ted promptings of the moral nature, instead of a mere j)olicy 
dictated by material and often conflicting interests, sym- 
pathies, and passions. 



8* 



CHAPTER VII. 

state of Public Sentiment at the Close of the Year 1 849.— California and New Mexico.— Mr. 
Webster's Speech of March 7th, 1850.— Trimming Politicians.— Sentimental Politicians. 
—The Church as a Political Engine.— M. Clay's Comprobiise Resolutions.— Petition for 
Dissolution of the Union.— Mr. Hale, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Chase vote to receive it. — 
Washington's Farewell Address.— Mi-. Calhoun's Resolutions. — Action of Southern 
Members of Congress. — Mr. Webster.— The Compromise Measm-es of 1850.— State 
Sovereignty.— The Fugitive Slave Laws of 1793 and of 1850.— The Missouri Compro- 
mise abrogated by the Measures of 1850. 

At the beginning of tlie session of Congress, in Decem- 
ber, 1849, both the ISTorth and the South had become wrought 
up to the highest pitch of excitement upon the slavery ques-» 
tion. In the one section, the embers of the fires which had 
been kindled by the admission of Texas still remained a 
body of living coals. Other questions now arising, in regard 
to California and New Mexico, heaped upon them the fuel 
for another and a more fervent flame. Warmly as the North 
entered upon the discussion of this topic, the South, perhaps, 
even exceeded it in earnestness ; for it was regarded in the 
latter quarter as a test point, which was to settle definitely 
the equality of their rights in the Union and, as they alleged, 
their future relation to the republic. 

In fact, the Northern mind had become morbidly active 
on the subject. Various and powerful influences had been 
for some years at work to produce this effect ; if not in ex- 
press combination with each other, yet tending to the same 
general end, and conveying the impi-ession of a united effort, 
in the free States, against even the constitutional guarantees 
of the slave States, which was very far from being the case.' 

' " I left the Department of State in May, 1843, and shortly after I learned, 



MR. WEBSTEK UPON CERTAIN SENATORS. 1Y9 

The manoeuvres of certain leading politicians in the free 
States had a very great effect in producing this impression. 
In his great speech of March Yth, 1850, Mr. Webster point- 
edly alluded to this circumstance. He instanced, in particu- 
lar, Mr. Dix, of 'New York, and Mr. Niles, of Connecticut, 
who, as members of the Senate, had been among the most 
strenuous and influential in insisting upon the extremest terms 
for the admission of Texas, and who had opposed and voted 
against a resolution introduced by Mr. Berrien, of Georgia, 
during the war with Mexico, which declared, that the war 
was not prosecuted for the acquisition of territory, or for the 
dismemberment of that power. Mr. Webster's further re- 
marks upon this special point are too full of instruction, and 
too pointedly confirm the views already expressed in these 
pages, not to demand their citation. He proceeded to say : 

" These two gentlemen, worthy and honorable and uifluential men — and 
if they had not been they could not have carried the measure — these two gen- 
tlemen, members of this body, brought in Texas, and by their votes also pre- 
vented the passage of the resolution of the honorable member from Georgia, 
and then they went home and took the lead in the Freesoil party. And there 
they stand, sir ! They leave us here, bound in honor and conscience by the 



though no way connected with official information, that a design had been 
taken up of bringing in Texas, with her slave territory and population, into the 
United States. I was here in Washington at the time ; and the persons are 
now here who will remember, that we had arranged a meeting for conversa- 
tion upon it. I went home to Massachusetts, and proclaimed the existence of 
that purpose ; but I could get no audience, and but little attention. Some did 
not believe it, and some were engaged in their own pursuits. They had 
gone to their farms, or to then* merchandise, and it was impossible to rouse 
any sentiment in New England, or in Massachusetts, that should combine the 
two great political parties against tliis annexation ; and, indeed, there was no 
hope of bringing the Northern Democracy into that view, for the leaning was 
all the other way. But, sir, even with Whigs — and leading Whigs, I am 
ashamed to say — there was a great indifference toward the admission of 
Texas, with slave territory, into this Union. It weht on." — Webstei-'s speech in 
the Senate, March 1th, 1850. 

But they were right. It was not mdifference to human freedom which in- 
fluenced them, but indisposition to engage in propagandism against the South, 
upon peace with which they felt the safety of the Union depended. 



180 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

resolutions of annexation ; they leave us here to take the odium of fulfill- 
ing the obligations in favor of slavery, which they voted us into ; or else the 
greater odium of violating those obligations, while they are at home making 
capital and rousing speeches for free soil and no slavery. [Laughter.] And 
therefore I say, sir, that there is not a chapter in our history, reflecting public 
measures and public men, more full of what should create surprise, more full 
of what does create La my mind extreme mortification, than that of the con- 
duct of this Northern Democracy." 

Subsequent events, however, sho'^'ed clearly enough the 
course, the influence, and the result of these proceedings. 
The democratic masses, in general, stood firm to the last, 
though only too many of their leaders, known at a later date 
as " War Democrats," were acting this double and mischiev- 
ous part. On the other hand, most of the Whig leaders — 
some of them, doubtless, the gentlemen alluded to by Mr. 
Webster in the speech already cited — manifested their con- 
stancy to principle, at such sacrifices and hazards as sternly 
test men's characters ; while the masses of the party exhibit- 
ed the turn of their sentiments by voting for Fremont in 
1856, and more numerously for Lincoln in 1860. 

But in addition to political influences, thus able to divert 
men from steadfast adherence to those essential principles 
which had proved the source of the country's peace and 
prosperity, there had been other efiective causes of anti- 
slavery agitation, which could not fail to attract the atten 
tion and engage the cooperation of a class of politicians 
strikingly vindicating their title to be reckoned " waiters on 
Providence." It was sometimes made a matter of boast by 
the Republican party, when it had reached such a height of 
power, that an argument with it, on this point, might be 
judged as inexpedient, as the Roman ofiicer thought one 
would be with the master of twenty legions — that all the 
literature of the country, and all persons in it of any literary 
distinction, were on tlie antislavery side. This allegation 
was by no means literally true, though susceptible of confir- 
mation to a very great extent. But, after all, it does not 
prove very much in favor of the cause. It may be presumed 
that almost all the literary leanings of Florence were on the 



LITEKATUKE AND THE NEGRO. 183 

side of poAver and patronage, in 1302, Avben Dante was ban- 
ished — the advocate of the peojjle and the foe of tyranny ; 
and now, 'after the lapse of six centuries of illustrious fame, 
the delegates of every refined capital in Europe have assem- 
bled in his native city to raise a monument to the memory 
of him, whose persecutors are best known by the record he 
has made of them in his own immortal verse. But, however 
permanent in its character most American literature may 
prove, it is certain that the portion of it devoted to the dis- 
semination of antislavery sentiments could enjoy only a very 
temporary vitality. This consequence must result partly 
from the nature of the subject, and jDartly from the fact that 
the treatment bestowed upon it was not often in correspond- 
ence with either truth or good taste. 

At the period under consideration, the negro had become 
a very general theme for magazine writers, contributors to 
the daily press, and lecturers on various occasions. Directly 
or indirectly, he was a prominent and staple topic of verse 
and prose. It was so easy to fall in with the sentimental 
view of the subject, so difficult to summon up the dictates of 
reason, so troublesome to feel one's impixlsive liberty of 
thought and feeling checked by constitutional scruples or 
obligations, that multitudes, of both sexes, gave way to the 
infatuation of the hour. The rights and wrons^ of the negro 
did not, of themselves, afibrd a very wide field of discussion 
or illustration, and the source of inspiration was not of abso- 
lutely Castalian depth and clearness. The range of specula- 
tion was widened, therefore, by introducing disquisitions 
upon Southern society, in a variety of aspects, either actual 
or imaginary. 

This society, except in its relations to slavery, differed in 
no very essential degree from that of the North, either in 
intellectual or moral characteristics. Making due allowance 
for the eflTect of climate upon temperament, a lady or gentle- 
man from the extreme South, though they might exhibit a 
somewhat more ardent disposition, resembled very much 
those of the same order in the extreme North. There was a 



182 OKIGESr OF THE LATE WAR. 

certain diversity of thought and of manner ; but, between 
the two extremes, there was ample room for every shade of 
difference, resulting from physical or mental organization, to 
melt into and blend with each other. The distinction was in 
no respect so marked as that between Scotchmen and Eng- 
lishmen, or between. Irishmen and Englishmen. In both 
parts of the country, there were the rich, those striving for 
riches in the several pursuits of business, the laboring classes, 
and the poor. 

The picture drawn of the people of the South by the anti- 
slavery agitators represented them as consisting only of the 
" oligarchs," or " lords of the lash," the slaves, and the 
" mean whites." It may be safely asserted that very few of 
those who thus drew upon their imaginations for their de- 
scriptions and illustrations had ever stepped an inch over 
Mason and Dixon's line. Mr, Garrison had scarcely enjoyed 
a brief, and probably not veiy extensive, opportunity of ob- 
servation in a border State. Probably, Mr. Sumner, Mr. 
Wilson, Mr. Phillips, and most or all of the more conspicu- 
ous harangaiers on topics connected with slavery, had never 
seen -a plantation, or possessed any advantages of social inter- 
course with the people of the. South. When they discoursed 
.uj)on this subject they dilated upon what might have been, 
in other nations and other times, as if it were a]3plicable to 
our own citizen* and our own day. Some of them ransacked 
all history for instances of " man's inhumanity to man ; " and 
undertook to deduce from the fact of the existence of slavery 
in the United States modern parallels for every example of 
ancient barbarity. To audiences certainly no better informed 
than themselves, they related " such stuff as dreams are made 
of," and inflicted upon them nightmares of troubled vision, 
which disturbed their nervous systems and haunted their 
waking hours. The sentiments which they sought to incul- 
cate spread themselves through many of the ramifications of ■ 
social life, and often embittered the gentlest bosoms, and 
alienated many accustomed friends. 

Under the more skilfiil guidance of the antislavery poli- 



THE CHURCH BECOMING POLITICAL. 183 

ticians, they sought to systematize their sphere of operations, 
and, "without developing their object, to introduce some 
agent of their opinions into every jDOsition of influence, 
whether connected with literature, jiolitics, business, or re- 
ligion. On the same grounds, their cooperatiom was always 
ready to exclude from every such position all persons whose 
opinions in regard to slavery did not coincide with their 
own. At their solicitation oftentimes it was seen, that legis- 
lative bodies passed, resolutions to pacify their urgency, 
Avhich afterwards placed the legislators in very awkward 
dilemmas. Thus it occurred, that, in anticipation of the 
compromise measures of 1850, Mr. Wilson, of Natick, a 
member of the Massachusetts Legislature of that year, and 
afterwards Senator of the United States, brought in resolu- 
tions for the instruction of the Senators and Representatives 
of the State in Congress, on that subject. To this propo- 
sition it was well replied, that the people were anxiously 
looking for instruction from men like Mr. Webster and Mr. 
Davis, then the eminent Senators from Massachusetts ; and 
that it might well seem like assumption, for the State Assem- 
bly to undertake to teatih such persons their duty, or to limit 
the course of their deliberate action. 

It was impossible that the Church should not be seriously 
affected by this condition of sentiment, which, if it did not 
fairly represent the public mind, was, at least, a vigorous 
demonstration, on the part of very active and sometimes ac- 
complished members of the body politic. The question arro- 
gated to itself high grounds of moral obligation, and there 
might seem danger that the Church itself would be left be- 
hind in the march of social progress and improvement. The 
mission of the Church Avas clear; and its duty obviously was, 
whether temporarily behind or in advance of the age, to 
keep its gai-ments and its ministrations pure. It was to 
follow the teaching and example of its Divine Founder, by 
striking at the root of all evil in the unconverted heart of 
man, instead of wasting its energies, like the Inquisition, -for 
instance, and in some measure the Puritan Fathers, upon 



184 OEIGIN or THE LATE WAK. 

special evils and causes of offence ; p^i'ticularly those con- 
nected with the administration of the civil government. In 
the latter case, it was inevitable that religion would degener- 
ate into politics. The shrewder and wiser saw, that it was 
possible for fanaticism, by assuming the garb of religion, to 
intrude into the sanctuary, to oust the rightful j^ossessor, and 
with a soul inflamed by zeal for some one sublunary object, 
which, if related at all to religion, was only subsidiary to it, 
and not of its essential essence, to degrade the high service 
of God into the worship of an earthly idol. Yet, for a long 
time, many of the more staid and sober-minded of the North- 
ern clergy, scarcely interpreting correctly, it may be thought, 
the injunction of the apostle, to " remember those that are 
in bonds as hound with tliem^'' seldom thought their public 
supplications to the Almighty complete, without an inter- 
cession, directly or indirectly, for the slave to be freed with 
them / and this, too, when the country was agitated by the 
question of slavery, in its bearings of political significance 
and importance.^ 

- It may seem almost presumptuous to attempt the exposition of a passage 
of Scripture, which has left the learned in much doubt, after a great deal of 
inquiry into the subject. It is in 1 Cor. vii. 20-24 ; as follows : 

" Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art 
thou called being a servant ? care not for it ; but if thou mayest be made free, 
use it rather. For hff that is called in the Lord, behig a servant, is the 
Lord's freeman ; likewise, also he that is called, being free, is Christ's ser- 
vant. Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye servants of men. Brethren, let 
every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God." 

The Greek passage in dispute is as follows : okT^' h koL dvvacai e?ievO£poc 
yevaadai, jxaXXov xp^^^o-'- The accusative case, which is wanting after the last 
word, is supplied in our translation by the word " it." The point, as to the 
word which it represents, is discussed, with his usual ability, by that admirable 
scholar and divine, the late learned Professor Stuart, of Andover, in an elabo- 
rate pamphlet, written in commendation of Mi'. Webster's Yth of March speech. 
Professor Stuart states, that every one of the early Greek commentators, and 
many expositors in modern times, among whom he cites the celebrated De 
Wette, agree that the word to be supplied should be 6ov7.eLav, slavery, hond- 
agc. The professor, however, admitting the force of their reasoning, which 
amounts to this — that such is the only construction which can support the 



DIVISIONS OF THE CHURCH. ■ 185 

As early as the yftir 1843, the Wesleyau Methodist Com- 
munion had established a rule, excludinj^ from " membership 
and Christian fellowship all who buy men, women, and chil- 
dren, with mtent to enslave or hold them as slaves, or who 
claim that it is right to do so." Two years later, the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, ISTorth and South — an organization 
widely extending through all sections of the country — came 
to an absolute separation, in consequence of an attempt to 
depose one of their bishops in Georgia, for entering into the 
holy state of matrimony with a lady who owned slaves. 
The result was, a conference at Louisville, and a division of 
the property of the Communion between the two, which was 
afterwards enforced at law ; the Northern body proving re- 
luctant to relinquish its possession of the Southern portion 
of the fvxnds. At a subsequent period, many disastrous con- 
sequences followed, among churches of every denomination, 
except the Episcopal and the Roman Catholic, both of which 
remained mostly free from divisions on a subject which could 
not be legitimately introduced into their form of worship. 
The Episcopal Church, North and South, has ncA'cr been 

proposition wUcli the apostle is aiming to establish, viz. : " Let every man 
abide in the same calling " (or condition) " wherein he was called," — yet in- 
clines to the opinion of Calvin, " the first commentator of any note " who 
supplied eXevdepiav, freedom, instead of SovAeiav, bondage. It may, perhaps, 
be diffidently suggested, that the difficulty may be obviated by the appropriate 
translation of a word, to which our common version does not give any trans- 
lation at all. This is Jhe conjunction koI. Mr. Stuart and others render it by 
the English word even ; a meaning which, in fact, creates the discrepancy, 
which would be reconciled by translating it also. It would then refer to the 
call, not to the service ; c. g. If thou art called while a servant, care not for 
that ; but if also (if in addition to the call) thou mayest become a freeman, 
use it rather. The apostle meant to enjoin upon all the insignificance of oui* 
condition, in a temporal state, relatively to the spiritual state, to last forever. 
But it can hardly be presumed that one who, on a memorable occasion, had 
already vindicated his own freedom as a Roman citizen, intended to convey 
the idea that a state of civil bondage was m itself to be preferred to a stute 
of civil liberty. Besides, it must be remembered that the bondsmen in re- 
gard to whom the apostle instructs his fellow-citizens, were white men. 



186 QKIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

separated in spirit. The roll of all the members of the Gen- 
eral Convention has always been regularly called over, at 
the annual meetings of that body, during the war. And 
now, an exceedingly good spirit prevails throughout the 
Church ; and it is reasonably to be expected, that this healing 
grace may be a chief instrument to work the peaceable fruits, 
so much to be desired. As to the Roman Catholic Church, 
it scarcely need be said, through what ages of worldly muta-, 
tions it has maintained the bond of union among its mem- 
bers, however widely scattered throughout the nations of the 
earth, or divided from each other by diverse civil institutions. 
But religious societies were sometimes completely broken up, 
and many persons of devout dispositions abstained from at- 
tending public worship, lest their sensibilities should be of- 
fended by the introduction of worldly topics ; and a general 
decline of religious sentiment and restraint became only too 
observable throughout the community. 

Early in the year 1850, Faneuil Hall, in Boston, a place 
held in peculiar reverence by the people, for its association 
with memories of the struggle for American Independence, 
and as the scene of vast popular outpourings, when the most 
eminent citizens of the South, as well as of the North, had 
addressed the assembly, on grand occasions, was now thrown 
open to the abolitionists, for the first time, by a city govern- 
ment of a turn of mind with which Boston had not been 
previously familiar. This incident was the source of extreme 
exultation to the triumphant fanatics ; and the fact was no- 
ticed, shortly afterwards, in a pointed manner, by a South- 
ern member, On the floor of Congress. When Mr. Webster 
returned home from Washington, the same city government 
saw fit to refuse the use of the hall to those who desired to 
listen, in the usual place of assemblage, to that great states- 
man ; a position from which these municij)al authorities 
speedily retreated in mortification and humiliation, amid the 
indignant reproaches of the peojile. At about the same time, 
two slaves, belonging severally to Mr. Toombs and Mr. Ste- 



A PETITION TO DISSOLVE TOE UNION. 187 

l^heiis, of Georgia, were " run off," in tlie popular pliraseol- 
ogy, by an Albany abolitionist, from Washington. 

It is plain enough,' from tliis general statement of the 
case, what must have been the condition of popular feeling, 
to a considerable extent, in the one section and the other. 
At the session of the 31st Cougress (beginning December 
8th, 1849), the Democrats, in combination with the Whigs 
from the slave States, could command a very decisive major- 
ity, in both branches, on all questions likely to arise aftectiug 
slaverj^ On the 29th of the following month, Mr. Clay in- 
troduced into the Senate a series of resolutions, embodying 
the principles of the several bills which were eventually 
passed by Congress, and which have been since known as 
the Compromise Measures of 1850. Some decisive steps 
were evidently necessary, in order to meet the public exi- 
gency. The whole country had been superficially, at least, 
wrought up to the condition of high excitement already in 
part described, and the gravest questions were pressing upon 
the attention of Congress, in relation to California, New 
Mexico, Texas, and the District of Columbia. In each of 
these the subject of slavery was either directly or indirectly 
a point of interest ; and the necessity was apparent for some 
sj^ecific i^rovision for the restitution of fugitive slaves, in 
conformity with the compact of the Constitution. At such 
a time, one might have expected that statesmen, of whatever 
party, would look calmly over the whole field of action, with 
the patriotic view of assuaging the elements of popular dis- 
turbance. It was, however, at this inopportune moment, 
that two petitions were oflTered in the Senate (February 1st, 
1850), by Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, which were couched 
in the following terms: 

" We, the undersigned, inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Delaware, believ- 
ing that the Federal Constitution, in pledging the strength of the whole nation 
to support slavery, violates the Divine Law, makes war upon human rights, 
and is grossly inconsistent with republican principles ; that its attempt to unite 
slavery in one body poUtic has brought upon the country great and manifold 
evils, and has fully proved that no such union can exist but by the sacrifice 
of freedom to the supremacy of slavery, respectfully ask you to devise and 



188 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAS. 

propose, without delay, some plan for the immediate, peaceful dissolution of 
the Amwican Union." ' 

The nonsensical falsehood of this ^hole statement makes 
particular comment upon it needless, to any one capable of 
intelligent analysis. It may be remarked, however, that the 
Constitution only so far supported slavery, as to admit of 
rights already existing when it was formed, without the rec- 
ognition of which there could have been no Constitution. It 
was a question, therefore, whether we should have a coun- 
try, under one form of government, with slavery; or no 
country at all, but a number of independent and probably 
conflicting States ; of which, those would still retain slavery, 
in their separate condition^ which actually came with it into 
the Union. Our fathers wisely thought a union of States, as 
they were, preferable to a congregation of individual repub- 
lics. Hence, they agreed to the Constitution ; and not only 
honestly, but of necessity, devised every just provision for 
carrying its principles into effect. It might also be sug- 
gested to those who, on such grounds, announced themselves 
as the special expounders and upholders of " the Divine 
Law," that, in a fearful list of offenders against that law, 
denounced by Scripture, " truce-breakers" hold a not uncon- 
spicuous place.' 

But, in truth, it was a chief fault or misfortune of a period 
of confusion, which some might think pointedly enough de- 
scribed, if not distinctly designated as the " perilous times" 
of " the last days," in the same passage of Holy Writ, that 
overtures like that in question were hai'dly considered of any 
serious moment, or deserving of any thing but contempt by 
persons of sober minds. Many such persons thought the 

' On the 25th of February, Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, offered the same resolu- 
tions in the House, which refused to receive them by a vote of 162 to 8. Pe- 
titions to the Legislature of Massachusetts, requesting it to intercede with 
Congress for " a peaceable dissolution of the Union," were among the ordi- 
nary measures pi^pposed to it by a certain class of persons for a series of 
years. 

=* See 2 Tim., ch. iii., 1, 9. "" . 



ADVICE OF WASHINGTON. 189 

foundation of tilings too secure to be moved, however fu- 
riously the storm might pass over the towers and mittle- 
ments. Others, perhaps, who neither intended revolution, 
nor foresaw the likelihood of any fundamental change, care- 
lessly allowed themselves to tamper with the elements of 
danger, without thought of actual harm. In vain the Father 
of his Country had solemnly warned them : 

" Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of 
your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discounte- 
nance irregular opposition to its acknowledged authority, but also that you 
resist with care the spirit of ionovation upon its principles, however specious 
the pretext. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Con- 
stitution/ alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to 
undermine what cannot be directly overthrown." 

And again : 

" The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear 
to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independ- 
ence — the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad ; of your safe- 
ty, of your prosperity ; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it 
is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much 
pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the con- 
viction of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against which 
the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and ac- 
tively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed,^ it is of infinite moment 
that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union 
to your collective and mdividual happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, 
habitual, and immovable attachment to it ; accustxtming yourselves to speak 
of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for 
its preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest 

* The Repubhcan managers always professed to act imder "the forms 
of the Constitution," while they were doing all in their power to " impair the 
energy of the system." 

" This was the point, in fact, assailed. Saying nothing here of external 
foes, the internal enemies, whose future devices against the Union were so 
clearly foreseen by Washington, at first " covertly and insidiously," then 
" constantly and actively," attacked the Union, by undermining the reasons 
for it ; that is, the foundations of it, in the engagements of the Constitution. 

" You take my life 

When you do take the means whereby I live." 

Merchant of Ve^iice. 



190 OKIGESr OF THE LATE WAK. 

even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned ; and indignantly 
frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion 
of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link 
together the various parts." 

Here, however, had come up at last an express memorial 
asking for "the immediate dissolution of the Arperican 
Union," because it was founded upon the Constitution, 
which Washington had so solemnly and feelingly enjoined it 
upon his fellow-countrymen and their posterity to venerate 
with such sacred devotion ! And this memorial was present- 
ed in the higher branch of the National Legislature, by a 
Senator of one of the States of this Union, without a blush ! 
Mr. Webster suggested the omission of a preamble to this 
petition, which he offered as follows : 

" Whereas, at the commencement of the session, you and each of you 
took your solemn oaths, in the presence of God and on the Holy Evangelists, 
that you would support the Constitution of the United States ; now, therefore, 
we pray you to take immediate steps to break up the Union, and overthrow 
the Constitution of the United States as soon as you can." 

Only Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase voted with Mr, Hale for 
the reception of this memorial. The action of those Senators 
waaawide departure from the conduct enjoined by Wash- 
ington, in the passages just quoted from his Farewell Ad- 
dress. He had urged upon his countrymen, that they should 
accustom themselves to speak of the Union as of " the j)alla- 
dium of their polit^al safety and prosperity." But here 
were persons in the most eminent places in the national 
councils ready to hear it spoken of as an outrage upon hu- 
manity and a violation of the Divine Law! Listead of 
" watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety," they 
showed themselves willing to countenance ignorant and reck- 
less men in proposing schemes for its immediate dissolution ! ' 

■ ' Nothing tended so much to enfeeble the original attachment to a consti- 
tutional Union, and to prepare the way for the final catastrophe, as t^je supple 
compliances to the momentary passions or growing prejudices of the weak 
and ignorant, by men who sought to make use of the multitude for their own 
personal ends. 



RESOLUTIONS OF JDK. CALHOUN. 191 

It may be fairly presumed tliat these Senators, at that time, 
like others, entertained little thought that the Union could 
be in serious danger. But it can hardly be inferred that 
they did not, like too many others of their party alliance, 
make this grave matter a mere question of party politics, in- 
stead of regarding it as a profound interest of state. It was 
this mode of viewing and of treating the subject which pre- 
pared the way for futiire national ills. It accustomed in- 
considerate and wilful persons to talk, and to talk lightly, of 
topics which, in the spirit of the advice of Washington, 
ought not to have been allowed any place for discussion at 
all. But, in fact, it was too much the case in the North, 
that politics was considered an affair of merely personal in- 
terest, while in the South it Avas much more commonly re- 
garded as a matter in which the common welfare was vitally 
and indissolubly concerned. 

In order to a full and impartial understanding of the 
state of affairs, in the beginning of 1850, it is necessary to 
recur to certain demonstrations of the South, which had 
their part, certainly, in leading the course of events towards 
the impending crisis. On the 19th of February, 1847, Mr. 
Calhoun, of South Carolina, a Senator, than Avhom no other 
was more universally respected for his eminent ability and 
his unspotted personal reputation, whatever opinion might 
exist as to his political views, had introduced the following 
series of resolutions into the Senate, while the war with 
Mexico was in progress : 

Resolved, That the territories of the United States belong to the several 
States composing this Union, and are held by them as their joint and common 
property. 

Resolved, That Congress, as the joint agent and representative of the 
States of this Union, has no right to make any law, or do any act whatever, 
that shall directly, or by its effects, make any discrimination between the 
States of this Union, by which any of them shall be deprived of its full 
and equal right in any territory of the United States, acquired or to be ac- 
quired. 

Resolved, That the enactment of any law which should, directly or by its 
effects, deprive the citizens of any of the States of this Union from emigrat- 



192 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

inf^, with their property, into any of the territories of the United States, 
•will make such discrimination, and would, therefore, be a violation of the 
Constitution and the rights of the States from which such citizens emigrated, 
and in derogation of that perfect equahty which belongs to them as members 
of this Union, and would tend-directly to subvert the Union itself. 

Resolved, That it is a fundamental principle of our political creed, that a 
people, in forming a Constitution, have the unconditional right to form and 
adopt the government which they may think best calculated to secure their 
liberty, prosperity, and happiness ; and that, in conformity thereto, no other 
condition is imposed by the Federal Constitution on a State, in order to be 
admitted into this Union, except that its constitution shall be republican ; and 
that the imposition of any other by Congress would be not only in violation 
of the Constitution, but in direct conflict with the principle on which our po- 
litical system rests. 

Mr. Calhoun prefaced these resolutions with an elaborate 
speech, in defence of the principles which they set forth. 
The summary of his argument may, perhaps, be found in the 
statement that the vast territory already belonging to the 
United States furnished ample room for many more free 
States, while no farther opportunity existed for the formation 
of any additional slave States. He said : 

" I make a very moderate calculation when I say, that, in addition to Iowa 
and Wisconsin, twelve more States, upon the territory already ours — without 
reference to any acquisitions from Mexico — may be and will be shortly added 
to these United States. How will we then stand ? There will be but fourteen 
on the part of the South — we are to be fixed, limited, and forever — and twen- 
ty-eight on the part of the non-slaveholdmg States ! Twenty-eight ! Double 
our number ! And with the same disproportion in the other House and in the 
electoral college ! The Government, sir, will be entirely in the hands of the 
non-slaveholding States — overwhelmingly ! " 

In regard to the first of Mr. Callioun's resolutions, it may 
be remarked that the position taken by it was not tenable. 
Virginia, for instance, setting the example of high magna- 
nimity, had transferred its title to an immense territory to the 
United States— not to them, as separate States, l^ut to the 
body of States ; and had no further interest in it than all the 
other States had, as members of that Union.' It belonged 

1 For example,' the General Assembly of Virginia in 1783 authorized cer- 
tain delegates of the Commonwealth, named in the act, to " convey, transfer, 



THE " WILMOT PKOVISO." 193 

to the corporation, and not to the individual corporators. 
Legally, its affairs were to be administered at the will of the 
majority, however moral considerations might intervene, to 
modify that action, in any particular direction. As far as 
the other resolutions are concerned, they comprehend only 
abstract propositions, which would, doubtless, ha"\'e com- 
manded universal assent, except for the implication they 
involved in relation to slavery. It was the question, whether 
citizens " emigrating with their property into any of the ter- 
ritories of the United States" might take with them their 
slave-property ; a point upon which the country was deeply 
agitated anew by the discussion of the " Wilmot Proviso." 
This was a proposition introduced into the House in August, 
1846, by a member of the name of Wilmot, from Pennsylva- 
nia, providing that there should be neither slavery nor invol- 
untary servitude in any territory to be acquired by, or annexed 
to the United States, except for crime; but that fugitive 
slaves escaping into such territory should be delivered up. 
The turmoil into which this proviso threw the public mind, 
in both sections, could have had reference only to the ex- 
pected acquisitions of territory from Mexico, namely, Cali- 
fornia and New Mexico, in neither of which did slavery prac- 
tically exist, or was likely to be introduced. After distux'bing 
the popular feeling to an Extraordinary degree, for nearly 
two years, it began to be understood that this famous pi-o- 
viso was of no sort of utility, and it was finally rejected by 
Congress in March, 1847; though various enthusiastic mem- 
bers endeavored, afterwards, to revive it, on sevei'al occasions. 

assign, and make over unto the United States, in Congress assembled, for the 
benefit of the said States, all right, title, and claim, as well of soil as jurisdic- 
tion, which this Commonwealth hath to the territory or tract of country witliui 
the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying, and being to the northwest of 
the Ohio River," etc. 

It is true that this surrender was made while only a Confederacy existed ; 
but it peems obvious that, whatever was acquired by the Confederacy under 
the deed of cession, passed to the United States upon the adoption of the 
Constitution. 

9 ' 



194 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

Upon the conclusion of Mr. Calhoun's speech, Mr. Ben- 
ton, of Missouri, assailed both the resolutions and the South 
Carolina Senator, personally, with considerable warmth.^ 
Of Mr. Benton, it may be justly remarked, that whatever 
opinion may be formed of his judgment or foresight, as a 
statesman, he was, undoubtedly, a sincere and hearty lover 
of the Union, which he showed conclusively, afterwards, by 
refusing to support his son-in-law. General Fremont, the can- 
didate of the Freesoil party, for the presidency. He had 
marked personal foibles, and seems to have been more or less 
actuated by personal animosities. Mr. Calhoun's reply on this 
occasion, is an able, exhaustive, and successful defence of his 
course, on those points connected with his official life, which 
Mr. Benton had attacked with so much severity. A few 
days afterwards, Mr. Calhoun gave notice of his intention to 
call up the resolutions which he had proposed. Mr. "Web- 
ster, thereupon, announced his purpose of calling up certain 
resolutions which had been previously submitted by himself. 
Those were as follows : 

Resolved, That the war now existing with Mexico ought not to be pros- 
ecuted for the acquisition of territory to form new States to be adopted into 
the Union. 

Resolved, That it ought to be signified to the Government of Mexico that 
the Government of the United States does not desire to dismember the repub- 
lie of Mexico, and is ready to treat with the Government of that republic for 
peace, for a liberal adjustment of boundaries, and for just indemnities due by 
either Government to the citizens of the other. 

These resolutions would have opened the whole question 
of the future acquisition of territory, and, if adopted, would 
take away the entire ground of those proj^osed by Mr. Cal- 
hovtn, so far as the expectation of making new slave States 
was concerned. But Mr. Calhoun did not carry out his in- 
tention of calling for the consideration of the resolves which 
he had offered, and those submitted by Mr. Webster were 
also permitted to rest ; so that no further action was taken 
upon either series by the Senate.* 

' See " Thirty Years' View," and vol. xvi. " Abridgment of Debates." 
* " Abridgment of Debates," vol. xvi. 



THE STSONG POSITION OF THE SOUTH. 195 

The mistake committed by Mr. Calboun, on this occasion, 
of which he showed his consciousness by yielding his origi- 
nal purpose of pressing the considei'atiou of his resolutions 
to a decision, consisted in the assumption, that the twenty- 
eight free States, to exist in the future, would wilfully exert 
their superior power to the disadvantage of the fourteen 
slave States. This idea was a constant source of apprehen- 
sion to many Southern politicians. They either dreaded the 
injustice of the North, or felt humiliated at the thought of 
trusting to its magnanimity. Philosophically, they were 
wrong. Large numbers of those in the North who acted 
with the Freesoil party were subject to an opposite error. 
They were in constant alarm at the imagined increase and 
predominance of the "slave power." Hence, the contro- 
versy assumed undue proportions, upon a false theory, on 
both sides. 

But it was only while the issue of the struggle seemed to 
remain undetermined, that there would remain any real pre- 
tence for quarrel. The moment that question should seem 
to be definitely settled, so that the " rye-fields and wheat- 
fields " of the North, alluded to by Mr. Seward, and those 
of the Northern territories, were no longer thought in 
danger of being remitted to slave labor, every description 
of agitation on the subject, which implied any ground of 
appreliension, must of necessity have died quietly away. 
The South would have stood upon an impregnable founda- 
tion. It possessed its recognized and established rights 
under the Constitution. The Democracy of the North, with 
the exception of. certain of its trading leaders, was firm in 
support of the principles of the Constitution ; and the main 
body of the Whigs of the North claimed only that the 
agreement of the Missouri Compromise should be respected. 
It is true, that the latter resisted, as a body, the acquisition 
of any more slave territory, in any direction ; but they were, 
in reality, powerless against the united sti-ength of the South, 
in combination with the Democratic strength of the North. 
The Whigs must have grown still more powerless, if tliey had 



196 OKiansr of the late wae. 

insisted upon measures plainly in derogation of the definite 
constitutional rights of the South, at any time before the 
dispute became complicated Avith other considerations which 
led the way to the eventual open rupture between the sec- 
tions. 

According to a report given by Mr. Benton, in his " Thirty 
Years' View," of a speech delivered by him in the Senate, at 
an early period of the debate, in opposition to the compro- 
mise measures of 1850, recommended by the committee of 
which Mr. Clay was chairman, there was no necessity what- 
ever for any such action by Congress. He declared that the 
theory upon which the proposition for compromise rested 
was a mere hallucination. He saw no distraction, no strife, 
no discontent, in the country; but everything seemed to 
him remarkably quiet, and public affairs to be flowing pros- 
perously in their wonted channels, without disturbance, .or 
the sign of any thing calculated to give occasion for just 
alarm. Yet a few pages later, in the same work, he recounts 
some very striking symptoms of disaffection; he gives 
prominence, in fact^ to a variety of demonstrations, on the 
part of the South, which exhibited a state of extreme dis- 
satisfaction in that quai-ter, and a very apparent tendency 
towards disunion.' 

Among these were the formal protest of ten Senators 
from the South against the act which had passed for the ad- 
mission of California, the language of which, at least, strongly 
intimated a disposition to disunion, unless affairs between 
the sections could be placed on a more satisfactory basis ; 
the manifesto of forty-two members of Congress fi-om slave 
States, which Mr. Benton pronounces one among the " regu- 
lar steps for the separation of the slave and the free States 
immediately ; " the establishment of an outright disunion 
press at Washington, by the same influence ; the inflamma- 
tory speeches of many leading gentlemen in the legislative 
bodies of various Southern States ; the vehement language 

* "Thirty Years' View," vol. ii.. p. 281 et seq. 



ME. CALHOUN AND ME. WEBSTEE. 197 

of many Southern journals, of a tone quite as extravagant 
as that adopted by the most ultra newspapers of the North ; 
the secession Convention held at Nashville, which recom- 
mended that a Southern Congress should be summoned to 
meet. Certainly, instances like these go very far to show 
that an agitation was on foot in the South equivalent to any 
thing of the sort which notoriously existed at the North. 
But Mr. Benton was one of those statesmen who see only 
through the medium by which they are themselves surround- 
ed. He appears to have thought, because "they did eat, 
they drank, they bought, they sold, they builded, they plant- 
ed, they married wives, they were given in marriage," that, 
therefore, any indications upon the horizon, of an approach- 
ing tumult of the elements, might be dissipated by treating 
the signs of it with indifference ; and that the iDublic safety 
would be best promoted by a speech from himself, character- 
ized iSy a more than ordinary degree of levity. The project 
for the contemjjlated Southern Congress, however, failed, as 
he remarks ; and it is pleasant to recall the fact, that it failed 
through the influence of the better sense and feeling of the 
South. 

It is agreeable, also, to quote the just compliment which 
Mr. Benton pays to one of the noblest members of the Union. 
" At the head," he says, " of the States which had the merit 
of stopping it, was Georgia — the greatest of the Southeastern 
Atlantic States." Indeed, Mr. Calhoun declared, in the de- 
bate upon the compromise measures, that " it can no longer 
be disguised or denied that the Union is in danger. * * * 
The immediate cause is the almost universal discontent which 
pervades all the Southern section of the Union. This widely 
extended discontent is not of recent origin. It commenced 
with the agitation of the slavery question, and has been in- 
creasing ever since." Mr. Webster, in the famous speech 
delivered by him, on the same occasion — perhaps the most 
comprehensive, patriotic, and efiective of all the grandly 
eloquent specimens of oratory which he has left us — re- 
marked, at the outset of what he then said, and said so well : 



198 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

*.■■■* 

" It is not to be denied that we live in tlie midst of strong agitations, and 
surrounded by very considerorble dangers to our institutions of government. 
The East, the West, the North, and the stormy South, all combine to throw 
the whole ocean into commotion, to toss its biUows to the skies, and to disclose 
its profoxmdest depths. I do not expect, Mr;-President, to hold, or to be fit 
to hold, the helm in this combat of the political elements ; but I have a duty 
to perform, and I mean to perform it with fidelity — not without a sense of the 
surrounding dangers, but not without hope. I have a part to act, not for my 
own security or safety, for I am looking out for no fragment upon which to 
float away from the wreck, if wreck there must be, but for the good of the 
whole, and the preservation of the whole ; and there is. that which will keep 
me to my duty during this struggle, whether the sun and the stars shall ap-' 
pear, or shall not appear, for many days. I speak to-day for the preservation 
of the Union. ' Hear me, for my cause.' I speak, to-day, out of a solicitous 
and anxious heart, for the restoration to the country of that quiet and that 
harmony which make the blessings of the Union so rich and so dear to us 
all. These are the topics that I propose to myself to discuss ; these are the 
motives, and the sole motives, that influence me in the wish to communicate 
my opinions to the Senate and the country ; and if I can do any thine, how- 
ever little, for the promotion of these ends, I shall have accomplished all that 
I desire." 

At a still later stage of the debates upon the varioua 
topics before the Senate, at this time, under the head of 
" Compromise," Mr. Webster, whose speech of the Yth of 
March had exposed him to severe animadversion in certain 
quarters, referred to these attacks, briefly and with much 
dignity repelling them, and remarked in conclusion : 

" Sir, my object is peace. My object is reconciliation. My purpose is, not 
to make up a case for the North, or to build up a case for the South. My ob- 
ject is not to continue useless and irritating controversies. I am against agi- 
tations. North and South. I am against local ideas. North and South, and 
against all narrow and local contests. I am an American, and I know no lo- 
cality ia America ; that is my country. My heart, my sentiment, my judgment, 
demand of me that I shall pursue such a course as shall promote the good, and 
the harmony, and the union of the whole country. Tliis I shall do, God will- 
ing, to the end of the chapter." ' 

' In a note, at the end of this speech, Mr. Benton remarks : 
" It is impossible to read the speeches of this session and hear, as it were, 
the last words of the last great men of that wonderful time, Avithout having 
the feelings profoundly moved by the deep dangers to the Uiiion tvhich stood 



THE COMPEOMISE OF 1850. 199 

It is unnecessary, in order to a correct understanding of 
the scVeral questions which, in connection with each other, 
so long engaged the attention of the Senate, at this period, 
to recapitulate the numerous and complicated pi-opositions 
offered for its consideration. Eventually, they took the 
shape of five several bills, which were acted upon separately, 
and were passed to be enacted in their turn, namely : 

1. An act establishing the boundaries of Texas, and to establish the terri- 
tory of New Mexico. To a large portion of the latter, the former had advanced 
a claim, which was disallowed by the terms of the statute. Texas had already 
become a State, with slavery, by the law of March 1, 1845 ; and it was pro- 
vided that New Mexico, when in readiness to be admitted into the Union, 
should be received as a State, either with or without slavery, as its constitu- 
tion should prescribe, whenever the application should be made. 

2. An act to estabUsh a territorial government for Utah, with a similar 
provision in regard to slavery. 

3. An act for the admission of California, containing no provision relat- 
ing to slavery ; which had been prohibited already by the constitution of 
the State. 

4. An act to amend, and supplementary to the act entitled " An act re- 
specting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their 
masters," approved February 12, lYOS. 

5. An act to suppress the slave trade in the District of Columbia ; and 
which prohibited the importation of slaves into the District for the purpose 
of traffic. 

These several acts were passed, in both branches of Con- 
gress, by decisive majorities. That for the admission of 
California, about which the chief contest was made by the 
South, received a vote of 34 yeas to 18 nays in the Senate, 
and 150 yeas to 56 nays in the House ; that for the amend- 
ment of the Fugitive Slave Law, which was most objection- 
able to the North, passed by a vote of 27 yeas to 12 nays in 
the former branch, and one of 109 yeas to 70 nays in the 
latter. On the question of the admission of California, four 

before them, and the patriotic attempts they made to avert that danger. 
This brief speech of Mr. Webster is a noble illustration of the feelings of 
the patriotic sages of that portentous day. They labored to save their coun- 
try, and believed that they had done it." — Abridgment of Debates, vol. xvi., 
p. 558. 



200 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAR. 

Senators from slave States, namely, Mr. Bell of Tennessee, 
Mr. Benton of Missouri, Mr. Houston of Texas, and Mr. 
Under^'oocl of Kentucky, voted with the majority ; on the 
passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, three Senators from free 
StateSy; namely, Messrs. Dodge and Jones of Iowa, and Mr. 
Sturgeon of Pennsylvania, gave their votes in the affirma- 
tive,* In the House, twenty-four memhers from the slave 
States Avere with the majority, in the vote upon the admis- 
sion of California ; and thirty-two from the free States, in 
favor of the Fugitive Slave Act. 

The debate m the Senate, upon these several topics, had 
been protracted, with occasional intermissions, through the 
long period of eight months. Mr. Clay introduced his reso- 
lutions on the 29th of January, and the final action of the 
Senate was had upon' the last of these measures — that relating 
to the slave trade in the District of Columbia — upon the 1 8th 
of the following September. On the latter day, Mr. Hale, of 
New Hampshire, moved to recommit the bill, with instruc- 
tions so to amend it, as to provide for the abolition of slavery 
in the District. The yeas and nays wei;e ordered upon this 
motion, without discussion, and it was rejected by a vote of 
nays 41 to yeas 9. Congress had thus shown its deep sense 
of the public exigency, by submitting to the discomforts of 
a sojourn at Washington, during the entire summer, and by 
postponing the consideration of much other important busi- 
ness, until the adjustment of questions so profoundly affiscting 
the national peace and welfare could be effected. 

The interest of the country in the discussion had been 
naturally intense. The entu-e subject of the relations of the 

^ Mr. Dickinson, of New York, assigned as a reason for not recording his 
vote in favor of this bill, the absence of bis colleague, Mr. Seward, on account 
of ill health, with whom he had agreed to pair off. He spoke in favor of it, 
however, on the same occasion, and, among other remarks, he said : " The 
grievance upon the subject of fugitive slaves will be redressed, whenever the 
masses of the people in the free States are aroused to the abuses which 
have been practised in their name, under the garb of benevolence and su- 
perior sanctity." 



A POLITICAL BALANCE BIPOSSIBLE. 201 

States and the Territories to the Union had been subjected 
to the most careful and deliberate scrutiny, by the most 
powerful minds in Congress, impressed with uuaflected solici- 
tude for the common weal, and by the anxious conviction, 
that the passing period was one of critical moment, altogether 
unexampled, to the future fortunes of the country. The 
general plan of the Compromise, or some of its features, had 
been warmly and strongly resisted by Mr. Davis of Missis- 
sippi, Mr. Benton of Missouri, Mr. Seward of New York, 
Mr. Smith of Connecticut, Mr. Dayton of New Jersey, Mr. 
Hale of New Hampshire, and others ; while Mr. Clay of 
Kentucky, Mr. Webster of Massachusetts, Mr. Cass of Michi- 
gan, Mr. Dickinson of New York, Mr. Mangum of North 
Carolina, Mr. Douglas of Illinois, and those acting Avith them, 
brought to the several topics a force of eloquence and a co- 
gency of reasoning seldom exhibited in any deliberative 
assembly. While the Northern Senators who opposed those 
measures resisted the grant of any further shadow of protec- 
tion to the " slave power," and some of them, indeed, would 
have been glad to deprive it of all it possessed, under the 
Constitution ; the Southern oj^ponents of the scheme of com- 
promise were agitated at the prospect of the decline of politi- 
cal influence and strength at the South. There were those, 
also, like Mr. Benton, who held stoutly to the guarantees of 
the Constitution ; but, whether from jjolitical, or other rea- 
sons, objected to compromises upon incidental questions 
arising under it. There seem to have been inherent and in- 
superable obstacles to the claims asserted, in part, by some 
of the Southern gentlemen. The question of preserving an 
equilibrium of political power between the North and the 
South, was one altogether beyond the control of Congress. 
Had it been possible to fix upon such a balance, for the 
moment, it could have lasted but a short time. Great States 
Avould be formed, in due season, out of a vast territory with- 
in the jurisdiction of the United States, which was incapable 
of being dedicated to slave labor, by any force of legislation ; 
while the limits of territory suitable to that purpose, recently 
9* 



202 OBIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

acquired, were already fixed by national boundaries, and 
were of far inferior extent. 

It must be admitted, in the light of calm reason, that 
Congress was precluded, by the action of the people of Cali- 
fornia, from extending the line of demarcation between the 
free and the slave States through that Territory to the Pacific 
Ocean. If the people of that Territory, or of any other, were 
not the ultimate judges of those qualifications which might 
entitle it to admission, they presented a case, appealing, at 
least, as strongly for the concurrence of Congress in their 
action, by the prohibition of slavery in their Constitution, as 
if they had allowed its introduction. To have remitted their 
claim to them, with the requirement that they should change 
this feature of their Constitution, would have been a high- 
handed act of legislation, from which no good could have 
been reasonably expected, in the end. Instead of producing 
the effect proposed, it might have lost California to the 
United States, and its Pacific boundary to the republic ; and, 
in any event, could hardly have been regarded by the country, 
or the world, in any other light than as a strangely unwar- 
rantable and arbitrarily unjust proceeding. 

State sovereignty formed one of the grand topics of dis- 
cussion at this interesting crisis. The manifest distinction 
does not seem to have been always recognized between that 
kind of sovereignty and State rights. When the States 
declared their independence of Great Britain, in 1776, each 
became, in fact, sovereign. The Articles of Confederation, 
agreed to in 1778, set forth, that "Each State retains its 
sovereignty." The Constitution of Massachusetts, adopted 
in 1780 — and the fact applies equally to all the other States 
— expressly asserts this sovereignty. The Constitution of 
the United States, submitted to the people in 1783, in no 
wise impairs this sovereignty, except in regard to powers 
specially delegated to the United States by it, and not pro- 
hibited by it to the States. With respect to the powers 
granted to the United States in that instrument, and not 
prohibited by it to the individual States, the United States, 



STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND STATE EIGHTS. 203 

therefore, is sovereign; in all other respects, each of the 
States is so, by force of its own constitution, and of its legal 
independence. Within its own sphere, therefore, each State 
is independent of every other, and of the United States. 
Within this sphere, neither can, by its regular action, come 
into collision with eitlier of the others, or with the union of 
States. This is the ai^proj^riate sjihere of State rights. 

But there is a sovereignty of the Union also, within its 
own sphere ; coextensive with that of the whole body of 
States, and for the exercise of its own powers superior to it ; 
which, in the exercise of those jiowers, can no more interfere 
with those of the States, than the sun in its orbit can clash 
with the planets in their courses. The right of revolution is 
.of a difterent character, and a purely popular right, belong- 
ing to the people, not as citizens of States, but as men and 
members of the whole body politic, whenever they have 
spirit enough, and are in numbers sufficient to warrant revo- 
lution, as the remedy for intolerable oppression. In such a 
case, resistance is both a right and a duty ; but the remedy 
for grievous and long-continued infringement of State rights, 
by the General Government, would be, not the secession of 
States, to the derangement of the whole system, but the up- 
rising of the people, to restore the whole to its legitimate 
functions, for the general benefit.* 

Upon the whole, the adjustment of the conflicting topics 
which had so long occupied the attention of Congress, and 



* Mr. Jefferson took a different view of the subject, and it is proper to 
give his opinion, as stated by Mr. John Quincy Adams, who appears to have 
agreed with him, in his eulogy on Air. Madison. Mr. Adams said : 

" Concurring in the doctrines that the separate States have a right to in- 
terpose in cases of palpable infractions of the Constitution by the Govern- 
ment of the United States, and that the alien and sedition acts presented a 
case of such infraction, Mr. Jefferson considered them as absolutely null 
and void, and thought the State legislatures competent, not only to declare, 
but to make them so, to resist their execution within their respective borders 
by physical force, and to secede from the Union, rather than to submit to 
them, if attempted to be carried into execution by force." # 



204 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

of the country, must be considered as judicious and salutary.' 
California was admitted to the Union, of necessity, with a 
constitution jDrohibiting slavery, which was not adapted to 
its condition, and in pursuance of the determination of its 
people. The slave trade was abolished in the District of 
Columbia, in which it was a stigma upon the seat of govern- 
ment, and where it had been equally offensive to citizens 
from all parts of the country. Some provision for the re- 
capture of fugitive slaves, by legal process, to be exercised 
by magistrates and officers of the United States, to use the 
language of Mr. Justice Story, " was indispensable to the 
security of this species of property in all the slaveholding 
States." The act of 1793, in consequence of defects in some 
of its details, discovered after ISToithern sentiment had be- 
come averse to the delivery of these fugitives, was found in- 
sufficient for the purpose. The Supreme Court had decided, 
that State judges and magistrates were under no legal obli- 
gation to perform the duties, in this behalf, enjoined by that 
act. State legislatures had taken opportunity of this decis- 
ion to forbid, under severe penalties, any such interposition 
on the part of the local authorities. 

It is difficult, at this day, to discern any difference, in es- 
sential principle, between the fugitive slave act of 1850, ap- 
proved by Millard Fillmore, in accordance with the legal 
advice of Attorney-General John J. Crittenden, and that of 
1793, approved by George Washington, probably without 
other counsel than the obvious reasons in which all men at 

^ The following passage occurs in a speech of Mr. Choate, delivered at a 
" constitutional meeting " of a vast assembly of citizens, held at Faneuil 
Hall, Boston, November 26th, 1850 : 

" Honor and praise to the eminent men of all parties who rose that day 
to the measure of a true greatness ; who remembered that they had a coun- 
try to preserve as well as a local constituency to gratify ; who laid all the 
wealth and all the hopes of illustrious lives on the altar of a hazardous 
patriotism ; who reckoned all the sweets of a present popularity for nothing 
in comparison with that more exceeding weight of glory which foUows him 
who seeks to compose an agitated and to save a sinking land." — Choaie's 
Life and Writings, vol. ii., 313. 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT. 205 

that period concurred, and the motives of justice and honor, 
by which all were alike influenced. By the provisions of 
both acts, the proceedings for the seizure, identification and 
removal of the fugitive were made summary. Under the act 
of 1793, ajjpeal could be had from an inferior local magis- 
trate to a judge of the highest State tribunal, who had legal 
authority, however, only to determine whether the evidence 
was sufficient to warrant the removal of the fugitive to the 
jurisdiction from which he had fled. 

Under the statute of 1850, the whole authority in relation 
to the matter was confided to the judges of the highest courts 
of the United States, and, in concurrence with them, to mag- 
istrates known as commissioners, apjjointed by those courts, 
for the discharge of regular duties. The determination of a 
commissioner, as well as that of a circuit or district judge, 
was made conclusive, in each particular case heard by him ; 
except that the judgment of a commissioned could be brought 
to the cognizance of a justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, sitting in his circuit, to the judges of the Dis- 
trict Coui'ts of the United States, and to the judges of the 
State tribunals, under the ordinary provisions for the Avrit 
of habeas corpus^ in order that it might be seen, by the re- 
turn upon this writ, whether the proceedings, on the face of 
them, were regular and lawful, or otherwise. By the act of 
1793, justices of the peace exei-cised the same authority, in 
these cases, as the commissioners were empowered to use, by 
the act of 1850. In the latter instance, however, the supe- 
rior tribunals were not authorized to reexamine the proceed- 
ings upon their merits. 

In regard to the State courts, it may, perhaps, be prop- 
erly suggested, that, since they were strictly forbidden, and 
under high penalties, by local legislation, to render official 
aid in the restoration of a fugitive slave, it could scarcely be 
considered reasonable that they should be permitted to pre- 
vent his restoration, as provided for by a statute of the 
United States. Similar provision was made by the one act, 
as by the other, for the punishment of persons who might 



206 ORIGm OF THE LATE WAR. 

obstruct or prevent the dvic execution of the process, except 
that hy the later act the penalty was doubled. It is proper 
that the two statutes should be thus compared; because, 
although the first was quietly carried into eifect, in all the 
free States, without objection from any quarter, for a period 
of about fifty years, the other was made the subject of the 
most violent denunciation throughout the North, and was 
the pretence for a great deal of State legislation, which en- 
couraged and promoted evasion of the legislative action of 
Congress, and forcible resistance to it. 

The series of acts passed at this time, which came under 
the denomination of Compromise Measures, was completed 
by those for the establishment of territorial governments for 
New Mexico and Utah ; both of which were to be admitted 
as States, " either with or without slavery," as the. Constitu- 
tion of each should prescribe, uj)on its future application to 
be received into the Union. In the course of the debate in 
regard to the former Territory, Mr. Webster remarked, in 
substance, that he would not legislate for the prohibition of 
slavery in a part of the country from which it was already 
excluded by the ordinance of Nature; that he should no more 
think of prohibiting it in New Mexico than in Massachusetts. 
As a practical question, such legislation would certainly be 
both trifling and superfluous ; and the same objection is ap- 
plicable to the case of Utah. Indeed, however rich the for- 
mer Territory may prove in respect to more precious prod- 
ucts, it would seem absurd to think of devoting to slave 
labor a tract of country, througli a large extent of which 
even so common a vegetable as a potato can scarcely be 
made to grow.^ In principle, however, another question of 
importance was involved in this issue ; for while by far the 
greater part of New Mexico lay below the line of 36° 30' 
north latitude, all of Utah was situated above that line. In 
point of fact, therefore, the principle of the Missouri Com- 

' More recently the development of the mineral treasures of New Mexico 
has modified the relations which it then bore to the question in hand. 



SUMMAKT OF THE CO]ytPEOMISE, 207 

promise was entirely disregarded, in the several acts estab- 
lishing provisional governments for those two Territories, 
and prescribing the terms for their eventual admission as 
States, into the Union/ 

The " slave power," in fact, gained nothing whatever by 
this arrangement. Galifoi'nia, containing nearly six times as 
many square miles of territory as the six New England 
States, affording unexampled temptations to emigrants, and 
sure, at no distant date, to become one of the most populous 
and powerful States of the Union, was admitted with a con- 
stitution ijrohibiting slavery. As a set-off, New Mexico and 
Utah, each comprising a still larger extent of territory than 
California, but both unsuited to slave labor, furnishing com- 
paratively slight inducements to emigration, and, hence, the 
question of the -admission of either into the Union lying far 
in the indefinite future, were to be received, with or without 
slavery, as their inhabitants, at the period of application for 
that purpose might prefer. The traffic in slaves at the seat 
of the Federal Government was abolished; but was a matter 
of no practical consequence, since the trade was open in the 
States, beyond the jurisdiction of Congress. The comple- 
ment to this measure was the act for the rendition of fugitive 
slaves, to which the South was legally entitled, if any regard 
were to be paid to the provisions of the Federal Constitution. 

On the other liand, by the acts providing teri-itorial gov- 
ernments for Utah, and for New Mexico, so far as the latter 
was situated above the line of 36° 30' north latitude, the 
Missouri Compromise was, of course, suj^erseded. This fact 
became the source of warm party debate at a future day; 

' The provisions for the territorial government in New Mexico and Utah 
and for the admission of California as a State, were all in precise conformity 
with the principles of the act of 1854, establishing a territorial government 
for Kansas and Nebraska. In each case, the question of " free State " or 
" slave State " was left to the people to determine for themselves when they 
should frame their Constitution ; except that, as the people of California had 
already acted upon the subject, the same principle was recognized in the adop- 
tion of their action by Congress. 



208 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

and from it resulted tlie final struggle for the settlement of 
Kansas, -syliicli had such a powerful influence in promoting 
the immediate causes of the war. There can be no question 
that the provision of the act of Congress for the future ad- 
mission of Utah, either "with or without slavery," threw the 
door wide open for the admission of Kansas also, either Avith 
or without slavery; since the southern line of that Territory, 
crossing the northern portion of Xew Mexico, would coi-rc- 
spond with the southern line of Utah. The two were, there- 
fore, on equal terms. In short, since the restriction of the 
Missouri Compromise line was abrogated in respect to Utah, 
it was abrogated altogether ; and, since the question of " sla- 
very or no slavery " was left, by the act of Congress, to the 
final determination of the people of that Temtory ; in the ex- 
ercise of good faith, the people of Kansas were entitled to a 
similar privilege. This was the view finally taken of this 
subject by Congress, in the jjassage of the bill to organize 
the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas. Whatever policy, 
or any other consideration, may have prompted on this sub- 
ject, there can be no doubt that the action of Congress in 
this respect was the legitimate and necessary deduction from 
the Compromises of 1850. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Several Compromises in regard to Slavery.— Death of Mr. Calhoun. — Death of President 
Taylor. — The "Seward IHiigs" and Mr. Webster's Vth of March Speech. — Political 
Calm after the Passage of the Measures of 1850. — The Conservative Interest strongly in 
the ascendant. — The Fugitive Slave Act and " Personal Liberty Bills." — Sectional Senti- 
ment and its Local Causes. — Coalition of 1S51, between Democrats and Freesoilers in 
Massachusetts, to choose a Senator in place of Mr. Webster, and State Officers. — Rescues 
of Fugitive Slaves, and Rendition of them. — Mr. Choate. — Demoralizing Influence of 
the Coalition. 

In looking back upon the several compromises, of which 
the question of slavery was the element, it may be properly 
remarked, that if the Ordinance of 1787 had been strictly 
and literally adhered to, future national trouble would have 
been probably avoided. It was erroneous in principle, as 
setting up a sectional distinction, and creating a critical pre- 
cedent. Half-way measures seldom satisfy either party, and, 
unless of their very nature conclusive, are pretty sure to be 
reopened for dispute at some future time. No compromise 
could be absolutely beneficial which did not rest upon abso- 
lute and inherent grounds of permanency. Practically, this 
one was likely to stand ; because it comprehended only the 
territory then belonging to the United States, "northwest 
of the Ohio River," all of it unsuited to slave labor, which 
could but give way, therefore, the moment that of white 
men should come into active competition with it.^ A mere 



' While Indiana was still a Territory, its inhabitants petitioned for the sus- 
pension of the Ordinance of 1787 in their behalf. The subject was referred to 
a committee of Congress, from which Mr. John Randolph, of Virginia, made an 
adverse report, chiefly on the ground that the Territory was not properly adapted 
to slave labor, and did not need it, as the resources of the Territory would 



210 • ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

territorial line of boundary between nations or States can be 
indifferently well observed. The natural sense of obligation, 
in sucli case, is corresjjondent with the Scriptural sanction — 
" Cursed be he that reraoveth his neighbor's landmark." 

But a line of separation, dependent upon moral distinc- 
tions, real or supposed, can hardly fail to be, sooner or later, 
the occasion of renewed quarrel. That compromise was 
adapted only to the existing condition of the country ; and 
the statesmen of the day never contemplated the idea of an 
enlargement of the republic, by a vast accession of Western 
and Southwestern territory, out of whicii numbers of future 
States were to be formed. But deviations even from the 
spirit of that measure soon occurred. The South, in the 
adojDtion of the Ordinance, had shown a disposition as unani- 
mous as that of the North, to restrict slavery with the limits 
already recognized by the Constitution.' If the North, on 
that occasion, was actuated by a just principle, the South 
made to that principle a frank and generous concession. 
When, shortly afterwards, there were manifestations, from 
some quarters of the former, of a desire to exact concessions 
tending to impair established rights, the temperate yet firm 
tone of remonstrance, on the part of the latter, was such as 
to consign the whole subject to quiet, in Congress, for nearly 
the period of an entire generation. 

The Compromise of 1820 was, in a certain important 
sense, better calculated to maintain the peace ; because its 
application was conformable to the diverse character of cli- 
mate, soil, production, and the existing state of labor, in the 
several sections. Just adherence to its provisions, in letter 
and spirit, would have kept at bay all serious cause of dis- 
pute between the North and the South. But, fixed upon 
with great difficulty, by reason of Northern opposition to 
slavery, and attended with extreme popular displeasure 

soon become developed by the labor of its white inhabitants. This was in 
1803. 

' In fact, the North was not quite unanimous ; one vote against it was given 
from New York. 



THE SOUTH SECURE ENOUGH. 211 

against those Northern memJbers of Congress who voted for 
the measure, it was violated also, in spirit, by continuous ag- 
gression from the free States ; until the acquisition of further 
territory" presented the occasion of dispute in a novel asi^ect, 
from which eventually followed the settlement of 1850. 

The latter compromise, abandoning the demaixation of 
any specific line between the free and the slave States, was 
devised in order to balance certain discordant interests 
which, in reality, did not admit of any permanent equilibri- 
um. The effect of it was, to open the whole question of 
slavery, in connection with the possessions of the United 
States, outside of the Union. Yet, if the South had been 
content to leaA'e matters as they i-eally stood, upon the adop- 
tion of the measures of 1850, she would have been perfectly 
secure, notwithstanding any dissatisfaction Avhich existed at 
the Noi'th. It is true, that there were several complicated 
questions of constitutional j^rinciple, mixed up with those 
measures, which had drawn forth eminently able discussion, 
from both sides, during the very long period that they occu-. 
pied the attention of the Senate, and which cOuld hardly be 
held to have been definitively settled, except so far as the will 
of a majority was expressed in the determination of the 
points at issue. 

But, on the other hand, it was obviously a vain struggle 
of the South against inexorable facts, already decided by 
the great and naturally increasing preponderance of political 
power in the North. It would have been better, therefore, 
for the Southern States to be satisfied to remain what Mr. 
Calhoun once said they would ever be, if the i^rinciples 
which he advocated Avere maintained — " a respectable por- 
tion of the Union " ' — relying upon the justice of the fi-iends 
of the Constitution at the North, who were very largely in 
the majority, and sure to maintain their strength, so long as 
the Constitution itself should stand. In fact, there was no 
cause whatever for apprehension in regard to slavery in the 

* Speech in February, 184*7, upon introducing certain resolutions. 



212 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAH. 

States. Unhappily, it was conceived that the Southern 
States had the power, in combination with the Northern 
conservatives, to compel compliance with objects which 
were, in the very nature of the case, impracticable ; and 
what has been lost by them, was lost in the pursuit of a 
shadow cast by the very substance which was actually in 
their grasp. 

Early in the course of the great debate, brought to a con- 
clusion by the passage of the several acts already considered, 
Mr. Calhoun, so long the eminent leader on the Southern 
side, had passed away from the scene of earthly struggles.' 
After the interval of a few months, President Taylor had 
followed him to the grave. Mr. Fillmore had succeeded that 
universally lamented Chief Magistrate, during the progress 
of the debates in question, and had assembled a new cabinet, 
in which Mr. Webster occupied the most commanding place. 
The dissatisfaction with which Mr. Webster's 7th of March 
speech had been received by a considerable portion of the 
political party with which he had acted, during his whole 
public life, and whose views of policy had derived such clear- 
ness and strength from his steady and splendid defence of 
them, was very distinctly manifested, upon the intimation 
that he was likely to be invited to the post of Secretary of 
State. The journals of the day styled his opponents "the 
Seward Whigs." Among the Whig newspapers which as- 
sailed him were the Albany Evening Journal and the Boston 
Atlas ; the former ably conducted by Mr. Thurlow Weed ; 
the latter, which, for years, had been managed with singular 
spirit and intelligence, having fallen into other hands, after 
the decease of Mr. Haughton, its original editor. 

Here was the seed, and within its folds the deadly tree, 
from whose poisonous leaves afterwards dropped shower' of 
blood. Already, those sectional Whigs, who would not sup- 
jDort General Taylor, because he was a citizen of a slave 



' Warm tributes to his memory were paid by Mr. Webster, Mr. Winthrop, 
and many others. 
) 



A SECTIONAL CONYENTION. 213 

State, in concert with disappointed and factious Democrats, 
had held their sectional convention at Buffalo.' Already, a 
petition had been presented in the Senate of the United 
States, asking Congress to devise means for the dissolution 
of the Union ; and the votes of Mr. Seward, TNIr. Chase, and 
Mr. Hale had been given for its reception — a petition as 
reasonable and proj^er, and as much entitled to be received, 
as if its prayer had been, that the eminent members of that 
dignified body should commit some private, instead of the 
public crime it actually enjoined upon them. The Buffalo 
Convention had inscribed on its banners — "Free soil, free 
speech, free labor, and free men." Under color of prevent- 
ing the extension of slavery, they had placed themselves in 
a position to render the political aid which was needed to 
the openly declared abolitionists. The three Senators, who 
had voted to receive jDetitions j)raying for the dissolution of 
the Union, had repeatedly made it known, by their public 
addresses, that their sympathies were with the abolition 
jDarty ; and it was evident that they would act in concert 
with it, whenever the convenient opportunity should arrive, 
whatever might be the revolutionary consequences to ensue. 
The orators, great and small, who were ready to force the 
elements of strife uj) to the point of convulsion, were numer- 
ous and active ; and a demoralized and reckless press, re- 
leased, to a considerable extent, from the restraints of party 
discij)line, Avatched the flaws of public sentiment, or trimmed 
its course by the current of the fresher breeze, and took every 
advantage of the confusion of the public mind, to embarrass 
it still more, and to stimulate it with every new means of 
excitement. 

* One of the resolutions of the Freesoil Convention at Buffalo, in 1848, de- 
clared, that the Democratic and Whig Conventions, then recently held at Bal- 
timore and Philadelphia, "have dissolved the national party organizations 
hei-etofore existing, by nominating for the Chief Magistracy of the United 
States, under slaveholding dictation, candidates, neither of whom can be sup- 
ported by the opponents of slavery extension," etc. Those candidates were 
President Taylor and Mr. Cass. 



214 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAS, 

Notwithstanding this apparent tumult of popular agita- 
tion, however, it was, in fact, far more casual, and less ex- 
tensive in its effects, than supei-ficial manifestations might 
seem to indicate. Laborious efforts were continually made 
by the radical agitators to irritate public sentiment; but 
there could be no doubt that the heated feeling of the coun- 
try, among the people of both sections ia general, was vei-y 
much allayed by the disposition which Congress had made 
of the several subjects to which it had given such patient 
and anxious attention. Doubtless, a large majority of the 
people were sufficiently satisfied with the result ; while 
many, to whom it was less acceptable, were nevertheless re 
joiced, that topics so dangerous to the public peace and 
welfare had been taken out of the arena of party politics, and 
been set at rest, at least, for some time to come. 

In fact, after the adjournment of Congress, in the year 
1S50, there was every prospect that a season of unusual quiet 
was about to succeed years of popular excitement, and of 
anxiety and almost despondency, on the part of leading 
statesmen throughout the Union, ^ The Democrats and con- 
servative Whigs, together, were in possession of supreme 
power, could they act in reasonable unison upon questions 
affecting the common welfare, which were out of the range 
of those topics of public policy upon which they had differed ; 
if, at length, any such points remained undecided between 
them. It was hoped, that now the various great economical 

■ In a speech to the National Whig Convention, at Baltimore, in June, 
1852, Mr. Choate thus referred to the general effect of the measures of 1850 : 

" Let him who doubts, if such there be, whether it were wise to pass those 
measures, look back and recall with what instantaneous and mighty charm 
they calmed the madness and anxiety of the hour ! How every coimtenance 
everywhere brightened and elevated itself! How, in a moment, the interrupted 
and parted currents of fraternal feeUng reunited ! Sir, the people came to- 
gether again as when, in the oldEoman history, the tribes descended from the 
mount of- secession — the great compromise of that constitution achieved — 
and flowed together behind the eagle into one mighty host of reconciled races 
for the conquest of the world." — Prof. Brown's Life and WrUings of Choate, 
vol. i., p. 1*76. 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 215 

interests of tlie country, which had been too often postponed, 
in consequence of sectional bickerings, might hereafter engage 
the more undivided attention of the National Legislature. 
Nor was this hope disappointed by the wise and distin- 
guished administration of Mr. Fillmore. 

The fugitive slave law was the chief theme of denuncia- 
tion by the radicals. Many persons to whom it was offensive, 
but who probably had never read the act, nor understood its 
provisions, though pronouncing it " a bitter pill," yet neverthe- 
less manfully resolved to swallow it, as a medicament provided 
for the ailments of the body politic. But it is to be deplored 
that multitudes of others, who occupied conspicuous positions, 
and could exercise no little influence with the public, made 
it the subject of continual objurgation in private conversation, 
or in addresses to numerous assemblies. Specific objections 
were raised to several of the provisions of the act ; but the 
real cause of offence consisted in the fact, that any provision, 
capable of being carried into effect, was made for the capture 
and restoration of fugitive slaves to their masters, in con- 
formity with the compact of the Constitution, 

Some years before the passage of this act, the legislative 
assemblies of New York and of' Pennsylvania, under the in- 
fluence of antislavery excitement, had repealed laws, long 
existing on their statute-books, which protected the owner 
in the possession of slaves brought with him into those 
States, for a period of sojourn extending, in the one case, to 
nine months, and in the other, to half the year. After the 
opinion of the Supreme Court had been promulgated, to the 
effect that State magistrates were under no positive obligation 
to execute the duties enjoined upon them by the Act of 1793, 
though it held them at liberty to do so, if they saw fit, unless 
forbidd'en by local legislation, not a few of the free States at 
once interposed prohibitory acts, restraining the local author- 
ities from rendering any such aid. The attitude thus assumed 
by those several legislative bodies was not only " aggressive," 
but might justly be considered extremely offensive, as well as 
unjust, by those thus put out of the pale of neighborly comity. 



216 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

In tliis condition of things, they were evidently entitled to 
suth 23rotection as could be afforded by Congress to their 
constitutional rights ; and, besides the opinion of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, declared in favor of this act of 
Congress, it is believed that the highest legal tribunals of 
every State in the Union had occasion to examine and deter- 
mine the question, and uniformly pronounced the law consti- 
tutional. 

In short, the State legislatures which assumed the right 
to prevent the execution of this law, so far as it was in their 
power, placed themselves in direct antagonism to the action 
of Congress ; and the States, therefore, so far as those legis- 
lative proceedings could effect that object, were in absolute 
conflict with the Government of the Union. The act in 
question appears to have passed through Congress with very 
slight discussion.^ It did not touch a single right of any 
citizen of the free States. It was to be executed in those 
States, by officers of the General Government, just as the 
revenue laws were executed by such officers. It affected only 
the relative rights, or claims, of master and slave, in the 
slave States. The opposition to it, therefore, was simply the 
assertion of a pretence, to interfere with the prosecution of 
the claims of the one to control the other, and to impede or 
prevent the exercise of such authority. Whatever objection 
there might exist to any of its minor details, in its essential 
features it corresponded witb the earlier enactment, which, 
for more than half a century, had been carried into effect, 
without objection. Undoubtedly, it was lawful to discuss 
its merits, in a free country ; and proper to do so, if it seemed 
actually to threaten any serious danger to the common free- 
dom. But it was scarcely patriotic, or even honest, to assail 
it, in the presence of pojDular assemblies, in the manner of the 
day, and in the existing state of the country, upon the alle- 

- In the Senate, Mr. Dickinson, of New York, seems to have been the 
only member who thought proper to speak in favor of its passage, and there 
was no formal opposition. In the House, it appears to have passed sub 
silentio. 



THE PERSONAX, LIBEETY BILLS. 21Y 

gation, not analyzed by the ignorant oi* undiscriminating, 
that the act was inconsistent with general liberty — when it 
simply provided, in reality, for the re-imposition of lawful 
restraint ujjon those not legally entitled to liberty. 

In consequence of the angry feeling assiduously stirred 
up and brought to bear upon the law, by the radicals and 
fanatics, and the self-seekers who were willing to palter with 
them for political ends, most, if not all of the Northern 
legislatures proceeded to pass those "Personal Liberty 
Bills," which, in spirit and intent and effect, were in direct 
opposition to the act of Congress. In Massachusetts, and else- 
where at the North, persons were summarily removed from 
office held under the State, because they declined to relin- 
quish official position, in nowise inconsistent with the former 
under the laws of the General Government. These continual 
acts of " aggression " naturally irritated and embittered the 
state of feeling at the South, and were the source of heated 
discussions afterwards, in Congress and elsewhere. Those 
Personal Liberty bills were evidently intended by the citi- 
zens of one portion of the Union, to prevent the restoration 
of their property, by the process of law, to the citizens of 
another portion. So contrary in spirit as they were to the 
former sojourning laws of New York and Pennsylvania, they 
were, in effect, not only an insult and injury to the South, 
but were in absolute derogation of the Constitution and 
statutes of the republic. 

But of Avhat avail were the Constitution and the deter- 
minate rights of slaveholders, though fellow-citizens, or were 
reason and justice and conscience against the " Higher Law," 
and the fanciful image of " a panting slave," encouraged to 
run away by Senators and lawyers and clergymen, and pro- 
tected by them, in resistance to the requirements of the laM's 
of the land ? In fact, the Liberty Bills, passed at a time 
when it was no otherwise dangerous to j^ass them than be- 
cause they were uuAvise and unjust, and must, therefore, lead 
to eventual mischief to others, were as treasonable in spirit 
as the Nullification Ordinance of South Carolina. They 
10 



218 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

constituted an extreme exemplification of the bi'oaclest claim 
to State sovereignty ; and, putting the States which author- 
ized them in direct hostility to the United States, they were 
not one whit mjore defensible than the rebellion itself, for 
which they had such a principal part in preparing the minds 
of the people of the seceding States. There was no real dif- 
ference, except that, instead of open Avar, in arms, they en- 
couraged resistance to the Government by secret violence 
and fraud. It was treason, only not of deeds, but of words. 
An able writer upon the constitutional history of the 
United States confesses the difficulty of tracing to their true 
source the causes of that sectional sentiment more or less ob- 
servable from the beginning of the Government, and earlier, 
and which must have been strongly marked at that period, 
to have prompted the deeply solemn and affecting expostu- 
lation of Washington against its indulgence.' On the whole, 
the wi'iter attribiites this disturbing element to the effect of 
personal ambition seeking its ends by the influence of local 
causes; so that "the patriot" would attain and hold his 
place, not ujDon the broad grounds of national interest, but 
in accordance with the sentiments of a small faction, it might 
be, controlling his congressional district. Or, perhajDS, ob- 
taining still more extensive jDOwer, the unscrupulous support 

' " History of the Constitution," by George Ticknor Curtis. 

Mr. Curtis says, in regard to tliis feeling : 

" It was very early developed, after the different provinces were obliged to 
act together for their great rnutual objects of political independence ; but, even 
in its highest paroxysms, it has always found an antidote in the deeper feeUngs 
and more sober calculations of a consistent patriotism. Perhaps its preva- 
lence and activity may with more truth be ascribed, in every generation, to the 
ambition of men who find in it a convenient instrument of local influence, 
rather than to any other cause. It is certain that, where it has raged most 
violently, this has been its chief aggravating element. The differences of 
neither manners, institutions, climate, nor pursuits, would at any time have 
been sufiScient to create the perils to which the Union of the States has occa- 
sionally been exposed, without the mischievous agency of men whose personal 
objects are, for the time, subsei'ved by the existence of such pecuUarities."— 
Vol. i., p. 372. 



THE PEOlSirNENCE GIA^EN TO MASSACHUSETTS. 219 

of factious opinions would constitute the tenure by which he 
held his own position with those whom he had led astray. 

In the State of Massachusetts, a very extraordinary illus- 
tration was shortly aflbrded of the operation of those local 
causes; leading eventually to momentous and most disas- 
trous consequences, in their influence upon national affairs. 
That State has occupied a somewhat prominent position, in 
the course of this discussion ; but, it may be thought, not un- 
duly, upon a fair consideration of the reasons which have 
prompted this view of its agency in the progress of events. 
From the earliest period, it had been conspicuous among the 
States, for the able and eminent men to whom its people had 
intrusted their interests in the National Legislature. Who- 
ever should take pains to run over the list of the Senators 
and Representatives from Massachusetts, du.ring tlie first fifty 
years of the constitutional history of the Union, and in cer- 
tain instances to a later date, will be sure to perceive that 
no State surpassed her, in regard to the general character of 
her public men for distinguished ability and integrity. 

It is not to be supposed that members of Congress were 
always more virtuous, at the period referred to, than after- 
wards ; but, at least, it was then more necessary for them to 
pay the tribute to virtue of concealing their vices ; and it 
may be alleged with confidence, that not one of them could 
then have maintained his position among his associates or 
Avith the public, who was even suspected of a great many 
corrupt practices, supposed to be much more common at a 
subsequent period. Massachusetts had given two Presidents 
to the nation ; both persons of more than ordinary qualifica- 
tions for the high ofiice held by them ; the first surviving to 
a very advanced age, and long looked up to with reverence, 
as a patriai'ch of the Revolution; while the administration of 
the other had been conducted with marked dignity and 
statesmanlike ability, which would have seemed more exem- 
plary and illustrious, if he had permitted his fame to rest 
upon it, and had kept aloof from scenes, in which it was to 
be lamented that any inducement could have persuaded him 



220 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

to mingle, and to mingle as he did. In short, not to reca- 
pitulate the various sources of her reputation, that of Massa- 
chusetts had been imiformly high for intelligence, energy, 
and public spirit, and she had always commanded a superior 
influence in afiairs of the Union. 

It had become quite evident, however, that the long- 
protracted antislavery agitation, as a matter of national con- 
cern, was now brought to a stand. At present, at least — 
and the American joeople are generally too ranch engaged 
with the present to look deeply into the future — the action 
of Congress had completely shut off all reasonable hopes of 
effecting any practical result by further agitation. The State 
legislatures had done all which it was in their power to do 
to obstruct the execution of the fugitive slave act ; but the 
duties enjoined by it now rested with the magistrates and 
officers of the United States. The use of the ordinary places 
of confinement, for the purposes of that act, was refused to 
the United States, by the "Personal Liberty" laws; yet 
there remained forts, arsenals, navy yards, and court-houses, 
still within the jurisdiction of the General Government. In 
regard to court-houses, however, apartments had been com- 
monly hired of the municipal authorities for the use of the 
tribunals of the United States, in the public buildings pro- 
vided for the accommodation of State courts ; the same com- 
ity having been observed, in this respect, which had prompted 
the old " sojourning laws " of New York and Pennsylvania. 

It became now necessary for the United States to pro- 
cure court-houses for its own exclusive use. Before this lat- 
ter arrangement was effected, it happened, on one occasion, 
that a chain, in order to keep off the crowd, had been drawn 
across an avenue leading to the court-house in the city of 
Boston, "where an alleged fugitive slave was held, awaiting 
the determination of the commissioner ; and a great outcry 
was raised by the fanatics, because the Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the State had " been compelled to j^ass 
under the chain." This incident was used with much effect, 
in certain quarters, though regarded with entire indifference 



COALITION OF DEMOCRATS AND FKEESOILEES, 221 

by the dignified, venerable, and venerated magistrate in qiies- 
tion. Upon the vrliole, there seemed to be nothing left for 
the leading fanatics and radicals, but to keep up a vigorous 
denunciation of the fugitive slave law ; and to trust to for- 
tune for 'such results as they hoped to secure for themselves, 
by working upon public sentiment. Except for what they 
might be able to make out of this sjDCcial topic, their chances 
for public office were small indeed. In fact, the prospects 
of " agitation," in general, diminished sensibly, under the 
ojieration of the compromises of 1850, and the cause began to 
look positively desperate. 

The relative strength of the political parties in Massachu- 
setts, at the general election, in 1848, has been already stated. 
The Whig vote cast was, in round numbers, 61,000; the 
Democratic, 35,000 ; the Freesoil, 38,000. Nor did the com- 
parative popular vote of these three parties differ materi- 
ally, for several subsequent years ; though that of the 
Freesoilers fell off in the largest proportion. Thus, at 
the State election of the following year, the Whig candi- 
date received 48,000 votes ; the Freesoil, 23,000 ; and 
the Democratic (Boutwell), 27,000. When the legislature 
met in January, 1850, the vote for Speaker of the House 
stood for the Whig candidate, 161 ; for the Freesoil (Wil- 
son), 66 ; for the Democratic, 59. In Massachusetts, at that 
period, and for some years afterwards, an actual majority of 
votes Avas requisite for the election of Governor ; and in case 
of the failure of either candidate to obtain that majority, the 
election devolved upon the two branches of the legislature. 
On this occasion, therefore, the Whig candidate was chosen 
by that body. At the election of the next year (1850), the 
Whigs cast 56,000 votes, the Freesoilers 27,000, and the 
Democrats 36,000, for their same candidate, Mr. Boutwell. 

In the mean time, Mr. Webster had resigned his seat in 
the Senate (July 22, 1850),haviug accepted the aj^pointment 
of Secretary of State, under the administration of Mr. Fill- 
more. The Governor had filled the vacant seat in the Sen- 
ate, by the appointmoit of Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, then a 



222 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

member of the lower House of Congress, until the legisla- 
ture, at its following session, should make choice of a suc- 
cessor* to Mr. "Webster. Stimulated by the inducement 
presented by this political prize, in combination with other 
motives in opei'ation, the " local causes," already alluded to, 
had been powerfully at work, during the interval preceding 
the session of the legislature. It is obvious' from the com- 
plexion of the popular vote, that neither party in the legisla- 
ture would now have the power to control the choice, either 
of Governor of the State, or of Senator in Congress. The 
utmost exertions had been made to secure the election of a 
legislature, which would be found conformable to the wishes 
of men, to whom the idea of the public good was not, cer- 
tainly, the guiding principle of action. They looked upon 
affairs with the philosophy of Ancient Pistol, and, like him, 
regarded the world as their " oyster," to be opened, or 
broken in upon, by them, as they best might contrive to 
manage the process. They had been, unhappily, only too 
successful in the enterprise which they undertook. There 
had been no choice of Governor by the people, and the dis- 
tribution of party strength in the legislature is accurately 
enough indicated by the popular vote already recapitulated. 
The proportion of votes in the House, between the Whigs, 
Democrats, and Freesoilers, was very nearly as 12, 9, and 7. 
A combination between the two latter, for the sake of a vic- 
tory over the former, would have seemed as unlikely as the 
kindly mixture of fire and water ; for, however imcongenial 
might be the dispositions of Whigs and Freesoilers, the 
latter and the Democrats were supposed to regard each other 
with sentiments of the most inveterate party aversion. 

Strangely enough, however, it became evident, as soon as 
the legislature assembled, that some unimaginable arrange- 
ment had been already effected between the professed adver- 
saries of slavery in the two Houses and the members who 
belonged to that party which was reckoned the special ally 
of the Southern institution. The people, in general, looked 
on with amazement, and wondered what could be the secret 



THE COALITION FURTHER CONSIDERED. 223 

terms of this singular truce; thougli it was not very difficult 
to guess at the motives which were at work, supposing these 
to have taken the place of all sober and honest principles. 
The first startling demonstration was the election of Mr. 
Wilson, of Xatick, who had been the Freesoil candidate for 
Speaker, the preceding year, President of the Senate, and 
Mr. Banks, a professed Democrat, Speaker of the House, by 
the combined vote of the anti-Whig factions in the several 
branches. The bargain, thus far, was a very plain thing ; and 
it was obvious that a Governor and a Senator of the United 
States were to be elected by the same conjunction of forces. 
The mode of choosing a Governor, prescribed by law, 
whenever the election devolves upon the legislature is — that, 
of the four candidates, who have the highest number of 
popular votes, the House shall by ballot select two* to be 
sent to the Senate, which body shall make choice between 
them. In the present case, the Whig candidate had received 
at the i^olls 20,000 more votes than the Democratic, who, in 
his turn, had received 9,000 more than the Freesoil candidate. 
Upon its first ballot, the House gave Mr. Boutwell, the 
Democratic nominee, 218 votes, which comprised the whole 
number of Democrats and Freesoilers present ; and for the 
Whig nominee 171 votes, that being the whole number of 
Whig voters present. On a second ballot, the Freesoil can- 
didate received 216 votes, and the Whig candidate the same 
number as upon the previous trial. Thus the Democratic 
and Freesoil candidates were severally taken in preference 
to the Whig, who had within twenty-four of a majority of the 
entire vote. Perhaps a more remarkable instance of total dis' 
regard to the expression of the popular will was nevei 
manifested by a deliberative assembly. For, whatever miglit 
have been the views of the Democratic managers, it is be- 
yond a question that the 92,000 citizens who had voted for 
cither the Whig or the Democratic ticket were unanimously 
opposed, at that time, to the views and pretensions of the 
Freesoilers, who had separated themselves from the two 
great parties, in support of extreme opinions in regard to 
slavery. 



224 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

Of course, Mr. Boutwell was chosen Governor, by a simi- 
lar combination of factionists in the Senate (January 11th). 
Probably, the same result would have been reached, if the 
name of the Whig candidate had been sent to the Senate 
with that of Mr. Boutwell. But there would have been more 
risk in the experiment ; it is likely that there would have 
been a protracted contest ; and the final exhibition of trick- 
ery would have been even more conspicuously shameful. 
Besides, the bargain had been made, and the consideration 
was to be paid to the Freesoilers, for helping to make a (so- 
called) Democratic Governor, who was in a minority of 
47,000, out of a pojiular vote of 119,000. 

At an early period of the session, namely, on the 22d of 
January, the Senate fulfilled its part in this creditable con- 
tract, by giving Mr. Sumner twenty-three votes for Senator 
of Massachusetts, in the Congress of the United States, 
against fourteen cast for Mr. Winthrop. The House, how- 
ever, proved not quite so manageable, in this especial rela- 
tion. Public indignation was strongly stirred up by an unex- 
ampled political proceeding, the whole purpose and extent 
of which had now become developed ; and public and private 
remonstrance, both at home and from a distance, was ear- 
nestly engaged to prevent the disgraceful consummation. 
Mr. Webster, whose vacant seat was to be made good, liad 
long been the leading statesman of the North ; equalled by 
no person in the country for his grand intellect and extra- 
ordinary powers in debate, and by few, certainly, for the 
distinguished j^ublic services which he had long rendered to 
liis country in eminent positions. Mr. Winthrop, conspicu- 
ous also in abiUty and accomplishments, had enjoyed peculiar 
advantages of training in political business, had passed 
through all the regular stages of advancement, and had a 
justly high reputation for political information, useful facul- 
ties, and ready eloquence, in Congress, of which he had been 
a member for not a few successive terms. 

Mr. Sumner had never been chosen to any public office ; 
was altogether inexperienced in afiairs, and owed whatever 



THE COALITION FUETHEE CONSIDEEED. 225 

reputation he possessed to liiszealin the specialty of the anti- 
slaveiy cause, and to studies of a speculatively sentimental 
character. He had neither political nor personal relations 
which could make him useful, certainly, in his place. His 
most marked intellectual exercise had been a public address, 
delivei-ed in Boston, of which the topic was — " Peace, con- 
sidered as the True Grandeur of Nations ; " a doctrine which 
he advocated to its utmost theoretical limit. Doubtless, the 
sentiments of this pacific essay, so utterly at war with ideas 
more recently upheld by Mr. Sumner, commended him, at 
the time of the election for Senator, to the members of the 
Massachusetts Peace Society; which, also, though disapprov- 
ing of all war, yet, in a very marked manner, through its 
official organ, continued to make an exception in favor of 
that recently on foot. It cannot be doubted, also, that Mr. 
Sumner would be more or less in favor with ideologists of 
every description, who, classified under numerous titles, but 
converging to the common centre of radicalism, ran rampant 
at that period, and long afterwards, in Massachusetts, 

In a representative assembly of some four hundred mem- 
bers, many of them plain men, apart from any overpowering 
influence of political ambition, it was not altogether easy to 
procure the unauimous conviction of the Democrats, that an 
entire sacrifice of the principles which had governed their 
lives, was warrantable, for the mere purpose of temporary 
triumph over a rival party. To some of them it seemed no 
less a dereliction of private honor, than an abandonment of 
public dvity, amounting to wilful and complete shipwreck 
of personal and party fidelity. Some of these held fiist to 
their integrity, to the end. But the Whigs had possession 
of the General Government, under an administration so re- 
spectable and well conducted, as to promise their jjarty 
renewal of power at another election ; and, in the State, their 
strength was such, that they were very likely to recover 
their former decided majority of the popular vote. 

The prospect was not pleasing to anxious " Waiters on 
Providence." Only desperate means, and such a general con- 



226 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

fusion in the j)UDlic mind as is Ibroiiglit about in the use of 
exiDedients to which only unprincipled men would resort, 
could countervail the advantages possessed by a party so 
well constituted and so strong as that of the Whigs. " Agi- 
tation " was the life and soul of the Freesoilers ; and, on this 
occasion, it was plain that they were troubled by no twinges 
of conscientious scruple. The Democrats, on their part, in 
the hojje that by this partnership of power with a faction 
which they really scorned, they might destroy the prestige 
of their more formidable opponents, the Whigs, entered, 
therefore, into this delusive and flagitious paction. The 
adversaries thus were made friends, like two noted characters 
in the New Testament narration ; but what fruits the Demo- 
cratic pai'ty reaped from the coalition appeared more clearly 
in the end. For a long time, such a number of the Demo- 
crats in the House continued impracticable, as to make the 
final defeat of the entire arrangement seem, at least, possible. 
The struggle lasted for more than three months. On the 
first ballot, which took place January 15th, the vote stood — 
for Sumner 186, for Winthrop 167 ; .and 28 scattering ballots 
had been thrown for other candidates, mostly Democrats. 
Here was not the whole combined strength of the Demo- 
cratic and Freesoil vote, as appears by a comparison of it 
with that given for Governor. Twenty-six several ballotings 
took place, with various intermissions, imtil the final result 
was reached on the 25th of April. At the ballot, on that 
day, the whole sum of votes thrown amounted to 384, of 
which Mr. Sumner received 103, the exact number necessary 
for a choice. 

"V^ile this extraordinary scene was in progress, not a few 
incidents of a striking nature had indicated only too clearly 
the spirit of the times. Every occasion of i:)ublic meeting 
had been seized iipon by the fanatics, in the cities and larger 
towns of the North, to denounce the fugitive slave law, 
dui-ing the few mouths which had elapsed since its j^assage. 
So far as they controlled the press — and they had certain 
journals of large circulation, and conducted with more than 



EESCUES OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. 227 

ordinary ability on their side — its animadversions on this 
subject were addressed to the passions, instead of the judg- 
ment of men. Certain members of both branches of Con- 
gress did not scruple to take part with avowed disunionists 
m their radical meetings, and to utter sentiments, in regard 
to the law, which could not but encourage the more excita- 
ble pai't of the community to resistance to a solemn Act of 
the National Legislature, which, after long and anxious de- 
liberation, had been concluded upon as one of a series of 
measures of pacification. Nothing could be more offensive 
to well-disposed and peaceable citizens, than the utterances 
of these orators of faction, great and small, under tlie profes- 
sion of regard for the principles of liberty. 

Under such influences, it is no wonder that rescues of 
fugitive slaves were attempted, and in some instances suc- 
cessfully, in various parts of the North. On the 15th of 
February, 1851, an alleged fugitive, named Shadrach, was 
forcibly carried off by a mob of colored persons, from the 
court-room of the United States Court, in Boston, while in 
.the custody of the officers of the Marshal, and was taken be- 
yond the jurisdiction of the government. The rescue was 
effected by the overpowering force of numbers, but no vio- 
lence was used towai'ds the officers, nor was any disposition 
shown to inflict personal injury.' The colored population of 
Boston was, in general, extremely well conducted, and it was 
clear that they would never have attempted such a daring 
enterprise except at the instigation of white radicals. Both 
white men and black thought to have been princij)ally en- 

' It was said that on this occasion a knife was drawn by one of the rioters, but 
that another colored man, who possessed considerable influence with his people, 
instantly remonstrated against any use of dangerous weapons, and thus prob- 
ably prevented needless bloodshed. A different spirit was shown in 1854, 
when a mob of mingled white men and negroes, at night, assailed the Court- 
House in Boston unsuccessfully, with the purpose of rescuing a fugitive slave, 
confined in the building, and a peace officer, named Batchelder, was stabbed 
by a white man, as was alleged, through an openmg broken in the door, and 
died eoon afterwards of the injury thus received. 



228 OKiGiJsr OF the late wae. 

gaged in the riot were brought to trial ; but the juries were 
indisposed to convict them, and the cases commonly ended in 
disagreement. 

On the 12th of April, another negi'O, named Sims, held by 
the commissioner to be a fugitive slave, was sent to Savan- 
nah in a vessel bound to that port, without disturbance, 
except from the outcries of a handful of abolitionists upon 
the wharf. A considerable body of policemen was in at- 
tendance. This matter of Sims had been brought, previ- 
ously, to the cognizance of the Supreme Court of the* State, 
upon application for a writ of habeas corpus ; and it was in 
this case that Chief-Justice Shaw (who -had "passed under 
the chain") pronounced that well-known elaborate and 
weighty opinion sustaining the constitutionality of the Act 
of 1850. *- 

No manoeuvre had ever been practised of a baser charac- 
ter than the Coalition described. It was worthy only of 
persons conversant with the lowest tricks of the lowest of 
their species. It had none of the excuse of those sudden 
temptations before which men sometimes fall, in the confu- 
sion of not very well-balanced faculties. The corrupt Coali- 
tion had been deliberately planned beforehand, and was as 
deliberately and perversely carried out. It was equally dis- 
creditable to both parties engaged in it. The FreesoUers 
professed to be actuated in their objects by supreme regard 
to the dictates of conscience. They urged the obligation of 
that " Higher Law," which demanded of its advocates the 
strictest adherence to abstract principles of justice and be- 
nevolence, without regard to those compromises and qualifica- 
tions supposed to be palliated by the necessities of worldly 
aifairs. In this instance, they showed that, in turning aside 
from the ordinary requirements of human action, they had 
equally released themselves from the restraints of supei'ior 
sanctions. For a temporary object, and one, it is to be 
feared, pursued in some measure with a vindictive spirit, 
they had come down from the eminence at which they j^ro- 
fessed to aim — from the lofty heights of which a purer doc- 



THE NEW senator's CONSTITUENCY. 229 

trine of humanizing philosophy was to be diffused over the 
earth than had ever yet blessed mankind ; and they had de- 
scended into the very kennels and gutters of selfish party 
scuffles for the most selfish party ends. They had sold con- 
science for a bribe. They had struck hands with avowed 
enemies to flieir principles, for the sake of crushing those 
who, if not their friends, had yet steadily resisted the exten- 
sion of slavery — their own dogma, and the only one, in re- 
gard to slavery, which could be constitutionally maintained. 

In a word, it was plain enough that Avhat these philoso- 
phers and philanthropists wanted was — place ; and that, for 
the sake of it, they would dive very deeply down from those 
supernal regions, whence they professed to derive the sum 
of all their motives and desires. Those regions had no con- 
cern, as has been already remarked, with the upper skies. 
If those professors of the "Higher Law" had any religious 
conceptions, they were moulded in conformity with a creed, 
revealed by a lanthorn-light within themselves. One of 
their chief doctors, not long afterwards, blasphemously 
claimed that they must have " an aintislavery Bible and an 
antislavery God ! " 

A Senator was thus chosen to repi-esent the State in 
Congress, who, in fact, represented less than a quarter part 
of the State, and the opinions of no considerable portion of. 
the people anywhere. The conduct of the Democrats in the 
legislature, however, was worse, if possible, than that of the 
Freesoilers. " The radicals had nothing to lose, in a mere 
party sense, and nothing to hope for, except what they might 
gain by aid of their ancient foes. The Democrats gave them a 
Senator whose personal influence was limited, and who could 
have no political influence whatever, under either a Whig oi 
a Democratic national administration. On the other hand, 
by securing the principal political influences in the State to 
their own party, the sphere of their local operations would 
be naturally enlarged. They had no fears of the Freesoilers, 
who were certainly at that time an uisignificant party in the 
nation, but were anxious to destroy the power of the Whigs. 



230 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

The enormity of the conduct of these Democrats consisted in 
the fact, that there was then positively no question of na- 
tional policy before the country which could be definitely 
stated, as constituting gi'ounds of party difference between 
themselves and the Whigs ; except that very one, of the ex- 
tension of slaveiy, in opposition to which Mr? Sumner, the 
Senator whom they had just helped to elect, was well known 
to be altogether engaged. Northern Whigs had uniformly 
resisted that extension ; and, up to a date then recent, South- 
ern Whigs had generally acted with them. Southern Demo- 
crats had taken a different view of the subject ; though, lat- 
terly, their leading statesmen, including Mr. Calhoun and 
Mr. Davis, had expressed their contentment Avitli a compro- 
mise line extending to the Pacific, on the basis of the Com- 
promise of 1820. Northern Democrats had generally voted 
in concert with their Southern associates on these questions. 
Otherwise than in this respect, there was nothing left of dif- 
ference between the two great parties but their mere party 
names and associations.^ 

This condition of affairs was in reality a great misfor- 
tune, in its relations to the public welfare ; for so long as 
grave questions of public policy were in discussion, capable 
of enlisting the minds of men throughout the country, upon 
the one side or the other, there could be little chance that 
merely sectional disputes would be fraught with more than 
temporary peril to the common good. The grand control- 
ling principle of both the Whig and the Democratic party was 

^ At the National Conventions held by these two parties, a great deal of 
labor was expended in order to keep up a show of difference for political pur- 
poses. So late as 1856, the Democrats were so put to it for a line of distinc- 
tion between themselves and the Whigs, as to protest against " a National 
Bank " — an institution which had not then been in existence for twenty years ; 
though now revived in a mamier, and with an influence upon the interests of 
the country, which, one would think, might almost bring back President Jack- 
sou from his cerements. Both the Democratic and Whig parties in their con- 
ventions took precisely similar ground in support of the Compromise Acta of 
1850, as a measure of pacification on the whole subject of slavery. 



ILL CONDUCT OF THE DEMOCEATS. 231 

the suj^port of the Constitution and the preservation of the 
Union. In regard to this vital point, their sentiments were 
identical, and equally patriotic and earnest. Yet the Demo- 
crats in the legislature of a State which yielded to no other, 
on the ground of intelligence and influence, had chosen a 
Senator of the United States who was in all his views and 
qualities the very opposite of the great "Defender of the 
Constitution," whom he succeeded ; one who was notoriously 
an abolitionist ; in short, an ideologist and ultraist, who, 
however restrained by jDolicy, at that time, from the full ex- 
pression of his extreme opinions, yet constantly .avowed doc- 
trines which, subjected to any logical analysis, were inimical 
to the Constitution, and tended clearly to tlie destruction of 
the Union. They were thus guilty, not only of the betrayal 
of party fidelity, but of all the duties of jiatriotic citizens. 
Whoever were the active agents in leading the majority of 
the Democrats in the legislature into this flimsy and open 
snare, it is a striking commentary upon the condvict of those 
thus deluded — that the Democrats then chosen to office, as 
on their side of the bargain, not a great while afterwards ex- 
hibited themselves in the ranks of the Freesoilers, became 
active partisans for their former opponents, obtained j^lace 
as their wages, and continued to hold conspicuous official 
positions in the Republican party.' 

It is certain that the most disastrous consequences event- 

' Mr. Banks was the Speaker for two successive sessions, by force of the 
continued coalition ; was then elected to Congress in 1852 by the coalition of 
Democrats and Freesoilers, and again in 1854 by a coalition of Democrats, 
Freesoilers, and Know-Nothings. He was chosen Speaker of the National 
House of Representatives in 1856 ; but it was as a RepubUcan candidate with- 
out disguise, he having received no Democratic or Native American votes. He 
was elected Governor of Massachusetts in November, 1857, 1858, and 1859, 
as the Republican candidate ; and upon the breaking out of the war obtained 
the commission of Major-General. Mr. Boutwell, after a service of two terms ' 
as Governor, having been in a large minority of the popular vote on both oc- 
casions, returned to private life. In 1863 he was chosen to Congress by the 
Republicans, and lately held the oflSce of Commissioner of Internal Reveuue, 
to which he was appointed by the late Administration. 



232 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

ually flowed from this deplorable act. Immediately, it proved 
of little public consequence, except in the injury inflicted by 
the Massachusetts Democrats upon their own party standing 
and interest, and in the evil example which it set for similar 
truckling coalitions in other States, But deeds of this kin^ 
do not pass away without their correspondent results. The 
unlucky blow afterwards inflicted by Mr. Brooks, of South 
Carolina, upon Mr. Sumner, in the Senate Chamber, gave 
him a prominence which there is no reason to suppose that 
he could otherwise have acquired. It also enlisted sympathy 
enough, on his account, to secure an indulgence to his ex- 
treme views, from persons to whom they had been hitherto 
repulsive ; and in this way powerfully seconded the general 
radical movement. Except for that blow, there is every 
ground for believing that Mr. Sumner's official course would 
have ended with his first senatorial term. But the effect of 
the unholy alliance which had turned over to the radicals a 
State, so soberly conservative as Massachusetts had been 
hitherto considered, was practically to demoralize the two 
great political parties. Under the stimulus of the disgrace 
and injury inflicted on the State by the conduct of the Coali- 
tion, the "Whigs rallied, and, at the Fall election of the same 
year, threw for Mr, Winthrop, who had been nominated by 
them for Governor, a vote considerably larger than the can- 
didate of either party had ever before received in Massa- 
chusetts in a mere State election.^ 

It would not seem a very violent j) resumption, to trace not 
a little of the shameful corruption, which, if not corrected, 
must be flxtal to the very idea of republican and free insti- 
tutions, to the infamous coalition between Democrats and 
radicals, in the Legislature of Massachusetts. The general 
result in that State was the complete perversion of the popu- 

' The vote for Mr. Winthrop in 1851 amounted to nearly 65,000. In the 
preceding year the Whigs had cast 56,000 ; in 1852, which was a general elec- 
tion, owing to dissatisfaction with the national nominations, they threw but 
50,000 votes for President, though the Whig candidate for Governor received 
62,000 votes. 



DISASTROUS INFLUENCE OF THE COALITION. 233 

lar mind. The Democrats won nothing whatever by their 
pliant concession to the Freesoilers. Instead of making the 
State democratic, they paved the way for converting it into 
the very hot-bed of abolition. They taught the Whigs, who 
had more actual affinities with the Freesoil party than them- 
selves, the mode of turning the course of events to their own 
advantage, until at length the Democracy of the State was 
fliirly overwhelmed by the returning tide. 

In fact, the Coalition of 1851 had a most unhappy effect 
in unsettling that tone of moral sentiment, which had long 
been, ostensibly at least, the guiding principle of political 
parties in Massachusetts, and to which she had doubtless 
owed much of her high reputation. If not always sincerely 
felt, yet that outward homage to a higher standard of action 
was thus paid, which could not but prove salutary in its gen- 
eral influence. Perhaps it was an occasion when pohtical 
parties in some other States might have appropriately in- 
quh'ed — " Art thou also become like unto us ? " The Coali- 
tion broke down the power of the Democracy in the State, 
and was the entering wedge which split the Whig party into 
fragments ; and, finally, left no choice to sufli of the latter 
as regarded the Freesoil movement with well-foimded alarm, 
but either to stand aloof altogether from public affiiirs, a 
position so ungrateful to men of spirit and patriotic feeling, 
in the day of public peril, or to unite with their old adversa- 
ries, the National Democrats, in the cause of the Constitution 
and the Union. 

The inference is inevitable, from the tenor of Mr. Web- 
ster's 7th of March speech, from his public action as Secretary 
of State, under Mr. Fillmore's Administration, and from the 
expression of his views to personal friends, at the period im- 
mediately preceding his last fatal illness, that, had he survived, 
he would have still more emphatically declared his adhesion to 
the national principles of tlie Democratic party. His pupil and 
intimate personal friend, Mr. Choate, himself one of the most 
accomplished and remarkable men of his day, who, by his strict 
attention to his professional pursuits, though much relieved 



234 OEiGEsr OF the late wab. 

by classical and literary studies, fell somewhat short of that 
more widely extended reputation as a statesman, to which 
his ability and his earnest patriotism would have entitled 
him, — himself, like Mr. Webster, originally a Whig of the 
Whigs — took frankly the course indicated. In his company 
were multitudes of distinguished men, whom once the old 
Whig party delighted to honor, and who, by their steadiness 
to ancient constitutional principle, could not but challenge 
the respect of their former associates, however changed miglit 
be the public relations between them. Indeed, the meaning 
of party names was fast becoming modified, as it was after- 
wards completely reversed ; until, by Democracy was under- 
stood Conservatism, and its opponents, in general, were 
known as Radicals. 

After the rule of the Coalition had extended to two years, 
such had become the popular disgust, that the Whigs in the 
election for State officers, of the two following years, obtained 
a plurality of more than 20,000 votes over the Democrats, and 
one still larger over the Freesoilers ; and the Whig candi- 
dates, on both occasions, were chosen by the legislature. But 
in the election ^f November, 1854, a novel phase of party 
manifestations was exhibited, which seriously afiected the 
Whig organization throughout the country, as well as in the 
State of Massachusetts, and which helped to drive home the 
blow it had received, by its defeat in the general election of 
1852. The national vote had then indicated very clearly the 
popular sentiment in favor of the measures adoj^ted by Con- 
gress in 1850. Of the thirty-one States, all but four gave 
pluralities for the Democratic candidate for the Presiden- 
cy. The new issue now introduced made manifest one of 
the strangest mutations of popular feeling, perhaps, ever wit- 
nessed in human experience. An extraordinary mania 
seemed to possess the public mind, almost neutralizing all 
other delusions which were not a few, and spread through 
the country, absorbing a portion of the strength of both po- 
litical parties in the South, but more particularly afiecting 
the anti-Democratic organizations of the North. 



THE " ENOW-NOTHINGS." 235 

This phenomenon worked for a brief space quite out of 
the common view, and then burst forth with irresistible but 
short-lived fury, bewildering with astonishment those who 
were not in the secret of the organization. This was the 
American or " Know-Nothing " party, based upon the idea 
of very much limiting, for the future, those privileges of citi- 
zenship which were already awarded by law to naturalized 
persons of foreign birth. It was a scheme which might have 
been of highly beneficial operation, if put in practice a genera- 
tion earlier ; but could only prove unequal in its eifects, and 
really impracticable, after many millions of the natives of 
other lands had flocked to the country, with the full under- 
standing that they were to enjoy, in time, the ordinary 
rights of native-born Americans. In fact, a generation had 
then nearly passed, since a very important measure of relax- 
ation had been applied to the naturalization laws. Some of 
the Western States were almost, if not quite, lawless, in the 
broad allowance of voting-pi'ivileges granted by them to 
residents of every description. But the very name by which 
the ncAv party was called, and which it assumed as its pass- 
word, was a falsehood, and utterly antirepublican in its na- 
ture. For a Republic demands open and fair dealing among 
its citizens. 



CHAPTER IX. 

National Politics. — Union Sentiment. — Mr. rillmore''s Administration.— The Democratic 
National Convention of 1852.— It adopts fully the Compromises of 1850.— The Whig 
National Convention of that Tear does the same. — Resolutions of the Freesoil Conven- 
tion at Pittsburg, denouncing those Measures. — Insignificance of the latter Party, at 
that Period. — Action of the Whig Convention. — Availibility, instead of Sound Policy. — 
Growing Conservatism of the Democracy. — The Native American Party. — How com- 
posed. — Its " National Council," in 1855, adopts the Compromises of 1850. — But its 
"Lodges" corrupted by admitting Political Preesoilers into Fellowship. — The 
" National Council," in 1S56, changes Front. — Decay of Public Virtue. — The faithful 
of the old Whig Part}'. — Policy of the Democrats. 

In tracing the brief story of this strange "American" move- 
ment, it is jjroper to recur for a moment to the condition of 
national politics. The administration of President Fillmore 
came to a close on the 3d of March, 1853, and President 
Pierce, who had been chosen, in the November j^receding, 
over General Scott, the" Whig candidate, was inaugurated on 
the following day. It ought to be stated, that the difference 
in the popular vote given for those two candidates, though 
more than nsual, was not so great, as to suggest any reason- 
able grounds of discouragement to the Whig party ; suppos- 
ing its principles to have been sufficiently patriotic and ad- 
hesive to hold it together for combined political action. The 
Democratic candidate received 1,590,490 votes; the Whig, 
1,378,589 ; and it was felt, generally as a subject of sincere 
congratulation, that the Freesoil vote was but 157,296 ; 
which was a falling off of 134,382 votes before given for that 
faction in 1848. 

On the whole, therefore, it appears, that a wholesome 
state of union sentiment prevailed throughout the country at 



THE CONDITION OF THE KEPUBLIC. 237 

that period. Nothing had tended more to foster and to 
uphold this i^atriotic feeling than the dignified and honorable 
course of Mr. Fillmore's administration. There are few spec- 
tacles in the history of the country more gratifying, in the 
retrospect, than that of its condition at the close of his term 
of office. Mr. Webster had been Secretary of State until 
his death in October, 1852, and was succeeded by Mr. 
Everett for the remainder of that administration. Mr. 
Crittenden was Attorney-General. Both of these have since 
followed the great Secretary, but leaving memories as en- 
during as the annals of the country. The members of the 
Cabinet, still living, are Mr. Kennedy, of Maryland, Mr. 
Conrad, of Louisiana, and Mr. Hall, of New York. 

At no period had the country enjoyed such peaceful pros- 
perity at home, or such unqualified respect abroad. In fact, 
domestic disquiets had apparently reached their culminating 
point, and seemed to be rapidly subsiding, as floods from the 
clouds, which rush down heights in a storm, fill into and are 
borne away upon the tide of a great stream. Foreign slurs 
upon democratic institutions which appeared so thoroughly 
tested and in successful action had ceased altogether, and 
the republic, at length, manifestly held a place among the 
nations which in promise, at least, had no parallel in the 
history of the world. There was no need of exaggeration on 
this point. The coldest calculation could but reveal the 
prospect of an unexampled progress for the imperial republic. 
Rome, indeed, unmatched, of old, in power and grandeur, 
had extended its sway among multitudes of distant and bar- 
barous nations, besides the vast rule it exercised over the 
more cultivated population Avitl^in, or not very remote from 
the proper limits of its empire. But the American people had 
already increased to nearly twenty-five millions in number ; 
were a race chiefly of one blood, and presented only such 
differences as might become readily blended into one compact 
and sufficiently harmonious whole. The actual " world " of 
Rome, comprehensive as were its j^retensions, was small, 
indeed, in comparison with the extent of productive territory 



238 ORiGijsr OF the late wae. 

within the specific boundaries and under the direct jurisdic- 
tion of the United States. 

The state of piiblic sentiment existing, at that time, in the 
several political parties ; or, at least, that which their conven- 
tions felt it necessary to address to the public, upon those ques- 
tions which had. chiefly disturbed, its quiet, will best appear 
by extracts from the series of resolutions adopted by each. 
It had already become a practice with the Freesoil orators to 
sneer at the idea of a "crisis" in the country — -just as they 
afterwards derided the friends of the Constitution by the 
title of " Union-savers " — a delusion, if it were one, from 
which later events awoke them to surprise if not to regret. 
The serious tone of both the Wliig and the Democratic re- 
solves make manifest enough the light in which this subject 
was viewed by sober. and sensible men. The Democrats 
were earliest on the ground, and met in convention at Balti- 
more, on the first day of June, 1852. They made known 
their principles, as follows : 

Resolved, That Congress has no power, under the Constitution, to interfere 
with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that such 
States are the sole and proper judges of every thing appertaining to their own 
affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution ; that all efforts of the abolitionists 
or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or 
to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most 
alarming and dangerous consequences : and that all such efforts have an inev- 
itable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and .endanger the sta- 
bility and permanency of the Union, an.d ought not to be countenanced by any 
friend of our political institutions. 

Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers, and is intended to embrace, 
the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress ; and, therefore, the Demo- 
cratic party, standing on this national platform, will abide by, and adhere to, 
a faithful execution of the acts known as the Compromise Measures, settled by 
the last Congress — the act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor in- 
cluded ; which act being designed to carry out an express provision of the 
Constitution, cannot, with fidchty thereto, be repealed, nor so changed as to 
destroy or impair its efficiency. 

Resolved, That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing in 
Congress, or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever 
shape or color the attempt may be made. 



WHIG RESOLUTIONS. 239 

These propositions are suiEciently explicit ; and they de- 
termine tlie point with entire accuracy, that, in 1852, in the 
deliberate judgment of that great party Avhich was soon to 
be victorious in the approaching election, the dangers Avhich 
threatened the country consisted in " aggression " on the 
part of a portion of the North against the constitutional im- 
munities of the South. 

, The Whig Convention met at the same city, on the 16th 
of June ; and the resolutions agreed upon by that body are 
not a Avhit behind those of their political rivals in spirit and 
point. They resolved — 

1. That the Government of the United States is of a limited character, and 
it is confined to the exercise of powers expressly granted by the Constitution, 
and such as may be necessary and propef for carrying the granted powers into 
full execution ; and that all powers not thus granted, or necessarily implied, 
are expressly reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. * * 

7. That the Federal and State Governments are parts of one system, alike 
necessary for the common prosperity, peace, and security, and ought to be 
regarded alike with a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment. Respect 
for the authority of each, and the acquiescence in just constitutional measures 
of each, are duties required by the plainest considerations of national, of State, 
and of individual welfare. 

8. That the series of acts of the Thirty-first Congress, the act known as the 
Fugitive Slave law included, are received and acquiesced in by the Whig party 
of the United Stateg as a settlement, in principle and substance, of the dan- 
gerous and exciting questions which they embrace ; and so far as they are 
concerned, we will maintain them, and insist upon their enforcement, until time 
and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard 
against the evasion of the laws on the one hand, and the abuse of their powers 
on the other, not impairing their present efficiency ; and we deprecate all fur- 
ther agitation of the questions thus settled, as dangerous to our peace, and 
will discountenance all efforts to continue or renew such agitation, whenever, 
wherever, or however the attempt may be made ; and we will maintain this 
system as essential to the nationality of the Whig party and the integrity of 
the Union. 

Certainly, the position thus taken by the representatives 
of the tAvo chief parties left nothing to be desired, in their 
expression of sentiments absolutely identical, in regard to 
the main topic of long-continued discord between the North- 
ern and Southern States. Evidently, they held the vexatious 



240 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

subject, which had so disturbed and threatened to destroy 
the repiiblic, entirely within their own control; for at the 
previous election of President (1848), they had together cast 
two millions and a half of votes, against less than three hun- 
dred thousand for the Freesoil candidate. It proved, at the 
following election, that their combined strength amounted 
to very nearly three millions of votes, against the greatly 
reduced vote of the Freesoilers, which was little more thap 
half as large as it had been on the previous occasion. The 
latter faction — for it was, in reality, nothing more — also held 
its convention at Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, on the lltli of 
August, nominated Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, as its 
candidate for President, and, in an elaborately-draAvn exposi- 
tion of their principles, mostly taken from the platform 
adopted by them in 1848, made the following new declara- 
tions : 

" That to the persevering and importunate demands of the slave power 
for more slave States, new slave Territories, and the nationalization of slavery, 
our distinct and final answer is — no more slave States, no slave Territory, 
no nationalized slavery, and no national legislation for the extradition of 
slaves. 

" That slavery is a sm against God, and a crime against man, which no 
human enactment or usage can make right ; and that Christianity, humanity, 
and patriotism alike demand its abolition. 

" That the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is repugnant to the Constitution, to 
the principles of the common law, to the spirit of Christianity, and to the 
sentiments of the civilized world. We, therefore, deny its binding force upon 
the American people, and demand its immediate and total repeal." 

It will be observed, that these somewhat pointed and 
comprehensive, not to say rebellious propositions, amount to 
an absolute arraignment of the Government of high crimes 
and misdemeanors, in its several representative, executive, 
and judicial departments. "The persevering and importu- 
nate demands of the slave power" had been reconciled with 
other demands upon the country, so far as the circumstances 
of the whole case permitted, a year before. Every point in 
dispute had been decisively settled. For, whatever " sin " 
or "crime" had been committed, in that adjustment, the 



CHIEF JUSTICE SHAW AND THE FREESOIL CONVEKTION. 241 

Government was responsible. The' act especially denounced 
by the Freesoilers was a deliberate enactment of the Nation- 
al Legislature ; it had received the official assent of the Presi- 
dent, acting with the advice of the Attorney-General ; and 
it was well known that it liad the united sanction of the 
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Al- 
ready, in many, if not yet in all the free States, occasion had 
arisen, or had been taken, for their highest tribunals to pass 
upon it ; and their decisions had been uniformly in support 
of the law.' Among others, the eminent Chief-Justice of 
Massachusetts (Shaw), perhaps as conversant with the prin- 
ciples of the Constitution and those of the Common Law, as 
any member of the Freesoll Convention, and reckoned a 
person of a singularly humane disposition and Christian-like 
spirit, had given an elaborate and learned opinion, from the 
bench, in its favor. ** 

The value of the judgment expressed by this Convention, 
on the point of law, may be thus estimated. Their fidelity 
to constitutional obligations is equally determinable. They 
announced their resolve, that there should be no national 
legislation for the extradition of slaves. Their objection to 
this jjarticular measure of legislation, which they declared 
had " no binding force," applied equally, therefore, to any 
act whatever, which provided for extradition. They alleged 
that each and every such statute was repugnant to the Con- 
stitution — though the Constitution expressly made pi-ovision 
for the return of slaves ; and national legislation, in con- 

' An adverse opinion was improvidently given in tlie Supreme Court of one 
of the Western States (Wisconsin), which was soon afterwards reversed by it- 
self upon finding it stood alone. 

^ Mr. Brown says : " Looking once at an engraving of Sir Matthew Hale, 
' a very great judge,' he said, ' but not greater, I think, than the Chief,' as 
Judge Shaw was familiarly called. An eminent lawyer, engaged with him in a 
case, was once rising to contest what seemed an unfavorable, if not an un- 
fair, ruling. Mr. Choate drew him back and whispered in his ear, ' Let it go. 
Sit dovTD. Life, liberty, and property are always safe in his hands.' " — Brown's 
" Life and Wntings" vol. i., p. 288. 

11 



242 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAS. 

formity with the clause referred to, had tat en place and been 
in operation for more than sixty years before they passed 
their resolution. In a word, the doctrines avowed by them 
showed their Convention to be a conspiracy against the Con- 
stitution and the Union ; and nothing was lacking but the 
overt act, to make them as responsible for the consequences 
of treason as those who, in resentment to this spirit of re- 
sistance to the laws of the land, were finally stung by the 
conduct of th-ese same Freesoilers and their sympathizers and 
associates into bolder, if more indiscreet rebellion. 

At the period in question, however, such intemperate 
utterances, on the part of the Freesoilers, could be regarded 
as only injurious to themselves. Indeed, they were treated 
either with extreme indifference, or only as the ravings of 
men half insane and wholly powerless. Considering the in- 
significant disproportion of their apparent numbers to the 
aggregate vote of the nation, it was thought, in general, that 
their sentiments were too extravagant to gain much head- 
way, or to become daugei'ous to the permanent welfare of 
the coimtry. They had been able, however, in 1844, to 
make sure the election of Mr. Polk, a candidate thoroughly 
devoted to Southern views, by withholding about five thou- 
sand votes, in l^ew York, from Mr. Clay, who was certainly 
no abolitionist, but who had distinguished himself, on all 
occasions, for his humane consideration of the negro race, 
and by every pi-acticable effort for the amelioration of their 
condition. On the whole, their spirit of resistance to the 
will of the people at large, and to the laws of the land, in 
the view of many who did not consider what weak barriers 
are constitutions and laws, in the hour of passionate excite- 
ment and against popular frenzies, seemed little less absurd 
than the noted conspiracy of the three tailors of Tooley Street 
against the British Government. But, in the mean time, 
fourteen of the seventeen free States had passed laws, which 
either came in diycct conflict with the act of Congress de- 
nounced by the Freesoilers, or rendered it so difiicult and 



CONTIDEXCE OF THE WHIGS AND THE DEMOCEATS. 243 

exjDensiye to execute it, as practically to deprive tlie statute 
of all vital force,' 

But, although the gage of battle had thus been thrown 
down by the enemies of the Constitution, and taken up by 
its friends of both the Whig and the Democratic side, the 
ensuing struggle was to take place between the latter tAvo 
parties. In the j^lenitude of their imited strength, they could 

* It would have been impossible, for instance, to convey an escaped slave 
from the extreme Eastern States to his master's home by the ordinary means 
of transportation, without the hazard of disturbance. A crowd could be read- 
ily assembled, at a multitude of stopping-places for the trains, by telegraphic 
messages, and the managers of the "underground railroad" were on the 
alert. Hence, it was necessary to devise extraordinary modes of carrying the 
law into effect, which proved so costly to the Government, as well as trouble- 
some to the claimant, in the few cases which occurred, that the extradition 
soon fell into practical disuse. From the seaports, of course, the fugitive could 
be sent home, as the opportimity presented itself, under the charge of a United 
States messenger. On the last occasion of executing the law in Boston, in the 
case of a negro known as Anthony Burns, the scene, to a cool observer, might 
have seemed ludicrous, as well as impressive. The city authorities and others 
certainly took the surest means to create a feverish excitement about an inci- 
dent which might otherwise have passed off with no great notice in that city ; 
or, perhaps, the not very judicious view of the subject was taken, that it was 
desirable to affect the public mind by the imposing ceremonies of a great spec- 
tacle. In the condition of popular sentiment in Boston at the period in ques- 
tion, a dozen or two resolute officers might have taken the slave to the vessel 
which was to convey him to Georgia, at noonday, without the least danger of 
serious tumult. But word was. given out previously of the day chosen for the 
purpose ; the militia, to the number of probably a thousand men, were turned 
out, together witli the marines in considerable force, from the neighboring 
navy yard, with their caimon, and lined the streets through which the proces- 
sion was to pass. The people from the country thronged into the city, and, 
doubtless, more than a hundred thousand persons witnessed the demonstration. 
Bums himself, who had been treated with great kindness during his detention, 
and who had been provided with a new and shining black suit for the occasion, 
by the bounty, it was understood, of the proslavery supporters of the law, 
looked like any thing but a victim ; he marched with an air, and was said to 
have felt highly flattered by the novel distinction conferred upon him. Inor- 
dinate importance was given to a matter which 'should have been treated aa 
an ordinary affair, and, undoubtedly, the effect on popular sentiment was un- 
favorable. 



244 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

afford to disregard the former faction, and contend with one 
another for the possession of political power. Unhappily for 
themselves, on this occasion, the Whigs played an apparently 
double and a losing game. Consistency with their expressed 
opinions, and fidelity to principles which they so solemnly 
declared, and which, in reality, were essential " to the nation- 
ality of the Whig party and the integrity of the Union," de- 
manded that they should select as candidates for national 
ofiice such eminent men as had led the party in the great 
struggle for the re6stahlishment of those principles. Any 
wavering on this point would be a sign of weakness of pur- 
pose, and could not but give their adversaries decided advan- 
tage. It would show a want of confidence in their own joro- 
fessions, and in the political integrity of their followers. It 
would tend to encourage the falling oiF of the latter, as 
temptation presented itself, and place them altogether in a 
position of unfavorable contrast with their jjolitical oppo- 
nents. 

It is by no means impossible that, if Mr. Webster had 
been nominated, and had survived, as he might, perhaps, 
have survived, in such an event — for there can be little doubt 
that a sense of jiublic ingratitude hastened his end — (" then 
burst his mighty heart ") — he would have been elected. The 
probabilities were the same in favor of Mr. Fillmore, whose 
administration had brought the country peace, and conferred 
upon it prosperity and dignity. In his place in the Senate, 
the former had been conspicuously efiicient in the support of 
those constitutional principles and measures of the Whig 
party — of which all his life long he was a chief pillar and 
ornament — set forth so emphatically in the resolutions of its 
Convention ; and those principles and measures had been the 
groundwork of the policy of Mr. Fillmore's administration, 
to the success and statesmanlike standard of which Mr. 
Webster's eminent abilities had so signally contributed. 
Before the ensuing election, he died a martyr to the most 
exalted sentiments of American patriotism ; while Mr. Fill- 
more has subsequently manifested, in a manner forever 



THE WHIG CONYENTION OF 1852. ' 245 

honorable to his rej^utation, his unchanged fidelity, in private 
life, to the political views which distinguished him in his 
public relations. A defeat, with either of those gentlemen 
for candidates, need not have been attended by any of those 
disastrous consequences which resulted in the final disruption 
of the party, in its reorganization under the auspices of the 
Freesoil leaders, and in whatever else has ensued, by reason 
of the abandonment of principle for the sake of expediency. 
As it was, its defeat was the signal for a general rout.' 

There can be no question that Mr. Webster was deeply 
solicitous for the nomination — less, perha2:)S, from any ambi- 
tious motive, than as a vindication of his public conduct, due 
to him, on the part of his political friends. There can be as 
little question that Mr. Fillmore's friends made every reason- 
able concession to the claims of Mr. Webster, who, in the 
course of nature, could expect no future opportunity for the 
gratification of his Avishes. Besides, the cry of " one term " 
had become more or less popular. But, after all, the Whig 
Convention was restrained, by motives of supposed policy, 
from conferring the nomination upon Mr. Webster, between 
whose pretensions and those of General Scott the contest in 
the Convention was finally settled in favor of the latter. An 
exaggerated estimate of the prejudices of the North against 
the Compromises of 1850, and an overwrought apprehension 
of their influence upon the election,* doubtless, dictated that 

' In his speech to the Convention, Mr. Choate had said, in reply to a ques- 
tion of Mr. John M. Botts : 

" I meant to present a sound argument to the Convention, to tlic end that 
this Convention might stand committed as men of honor everywhere. I say 
here and everywhere, give us the man, and you will promote peace and sup- 
press agitation ; and if you give us any other, you have no assurance at all 
that that agitation will be suppressed." — Browii's '■'■Life and Writinffs of 
Choate," vol. i., p. 180. (See also p. 178, of the same.) 

' It was the faint-heartedness of the Northern delegates which defeated 
Mr. Webster's nomination. The Southern members of the Convention prom- 
ised one hundred and six votes for him, on their part, whenever it was made 
certain that forty votes would be given him from the North, which would have 
secured the nomination ; but the latter never rose beyond thirty-two. — See 
Brown''s ''^ Life and Writings of Choate," vol. i., p. 181. 



246 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

policy; but the temporary success of a party was certainly 
of far less cousequence than the vindication of principles held 
in equal regard by both parties, and which, in the judgment 
of both, were essential to the integrity of the Union. Be- 
sides, the doubts manifested on this point stimulated the 
very prejudices which the Convention dreaded to encounter. 
But while the nomination of either Mr. \Yebster or Mr. Fill- 
more could not have failed to satisfy the true national senti- 
ment in both sections of the country, whatever might have 
proved the result of the election, that of General Scott, un- 
reasonably, as has been remarked already, and yet inevitably, 
had the effect of what seameii might call " a list to leeward." 
In point of fact, this great veteran soldier and warm- 
hearted patriot was known to entertain precisely those opin- 
ions which were promulgated by the Whig Convention. But, 
while he had not been at all mixed up in their public discus- 
sion — a circumstance, undoubtedly, of controlling influence 
with the Convention, in addition to his great and distin- 
guished pubhc services — this very circumstance afibrded the 
opportunity to his opiDonents to insinuate, most unjustly, 
that he held views of a character actually assimilating with 
those of the Freesoilers themselves. In the South, any suspi- 
cion of this sort would neturally have its effect. On the 
other hand, the disappointment felt by many Whigs, at a 
seeming want of frankness in the Convention, and the aban- 
donment of the chamjnons of the party, by adojDting a candi- 
date who, however justly resj^ected, could not be considered 
such a special representative of their principles as the condi- 
tion of the times demanded, carried over many thovTsands of 
them, both at'the North and the South, into the ranks of the 
Democratic party. The Convention of that party, in its 
nomination, had shown no flinching whatever from the opin- 
ions which its resolutions professed. In selecting their can- 
didate for the Presidency, thej^ fixed upon one about whose 
fidelity to Democratic opinions no doubt could be raised ; 
who had often served with distinction in high civil station ; 
whose whole public life had shown an unswerving devotion 



BOTH WHIGS AND DEMOCEATS PATEIOTIC. 247 

to national pi*inciples and the clearest patriotism ; and who 
enjoyed the largest and most familiar personal acquaintance 
and esteem of leading statesmen throughout the country. 

On both sides, there was unquestionably an equal and 
earnest desire to promote the true interests of the republic ; and 
the desire, on both sides, looked in pi'ecisely the same direc- 
tion, excejit in regard to mere party dogmas and political ques- 
tions of inferior moment ; and of none at all, so far as the main 
object of both, that is, the settlement of the country on the 
basis of the Constitution and the Union, was concerned. But, 
in the plan of the battle, the Democrats had shown themselves 
shrewder than their opponents. The result of the election, in 
which a party so eminently competent and successful as had 
been that of the Whigs, in the conduct of the Government for 
the four preceding years, was completely overthrown, made 
this fact sufficiently apparent. The gain of the Democrats, 
in votes, from the former national election amounted to nearly 
three hundred and seventy tliousand, while that of the Whigs 
scarcely reached fifteen thousand. The Freesoil vote had lallen 
off" nearly one-half, leaving it somewhat above one hundred 
and fifty-seven thousand, in the whole, against almost three 
millions of votes cast by the Democrats and the Whigs. 

In fact, while the Whigs lo§t more or less in every 
slave State — except a slight gaiu in Virginia, owing to a cer- 
tain pride in the " Mother of Presidents " for anotlier son — 
and also in several of the free States, among others Massa- 
chusetts, in which the decrease was more than five thousand ; 
the Freesoil vote was diminished in every free State, and in 
New York alone nearly one hundred thousand. Doubtless 
most of this latter change was in favor of General Scott. It 
seems reasonable to infer, therefore, that, had a different 
policy been pursued by the Whigs, they would have carried 
the election, instead of the Democrats. Or, if not, they 
might have successfully maintained their party organization 
and strength, for the behoof of the general welfare ; instead 
of becoming broken and scattered, as they soon did, and a 
prey to delusion after delusion — the source, in its final result, 



248 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

of years of agony, past and to come — to the common country 
of public trials which time may relieve ; of private griefs for 
which earth has no cure. The misfortune did not consist in 
the mere victory of the Democrats, which was honest in 
itself, and who have ever since shown themselves as a body, 
the firm supporters of constitutional principles ; but in the 
influences thus brought to bear, which led to the eventual 
dissolution of the Whi^ jjarty. 

Indeed, the Democrats and Whigs, acting together on con- 
stitutional groimds, helped mutually to sustain the body poli- 
tic, in itfi integrity, and were checks upon each other in points 
less essential to the public good ; while the disruption of the 
Whigs from their ancient associations paved the way, and 
provided the materials, for the formation of a merely sectional 
organization, the beginning " of all our woe." At the Sovith, 
in the presence of one question of absorbing interest to their 
civil and personal rights, which they knew were attacked, 
and believed to be in danger, the tendency would naturally 
be towards that party in the North which showed the stout- 
est front, in alliance with themselves, for the maintenance of 
those rights. The result of the election showed, that, while 
in the aggregate number of 2,969,079 votes cast by the Dem- 
ocrats and the Whigs, the candidate of the former received a 
majority of 211,901 — his majority in the slave States amoimted 
to but 71,733, and in the free States rose as high as 140,163. 
In fact, but four States, namely, Vermont, Massachusetts, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, of the thirty-one, gave majorities 
to General Scott, amounting, in the whole, to 23,454 votes. 
This turn of the aifair indicated, in no sense, a want of per- 
sonal respect for the noble and honest veteran, whose claims 
were thus postponed in favor of his younger competitor ; but 
was simply the decision of a political question in which the 
hearts and minds of the citizens were profoundly engaged. 
They acted, therefore, accordingly as their opinions and pre- 
possessions, in reference to that question, led them to take 
the one or the other view of it ; and the result was inevitable 
in the existing temper of the public mind. 



POLITICS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 249 

At the North, the prospect was altogether discouraging 
to the extremists, and not particularly cheering to the moder- 
ate Whigs. It was yet to be ascertained what course would 
be adopted, in regard to political action, by the shaken and 
disordered masses of the Whig party ; and this point was 
soon afterwards solved by the concurrence of various'cvents. 
That course may be readily traced, from step to step, by 
obser\'ing its direction in a single influential State. There 
having been a failure to choose State officers, in Massachu- 
setts, at the general election in November, 1852, the Whig 
candidate for Governor was chosen by the Legislature, at 
the session in January, 1853. By a similar process, a difier- 
ent Whig candidate was elected for the year 1854. At the 
election in the autumn of the last-named year the Know-Noth- 
ing party had gained the public ear, and its candidate was elect" 
ed by a very large popular majority. A comparison of the 
votes, in the fall of 1853 and that of 1854, throws a flood of 
light upon the process of general demoralization which had 
thus overtaken all parties in the State'; and exhibits also a 
remarkable versatility of principle on the part of those who 
professed to be more especially subject to the emotions of 
philanthropy and the dictates of conscience. It is of great 
importance to mark this turn of affairs ; because out of it 
grew the strength of another party, which furnished some of 
the most influential promoters of those causes leading to the 
rebellion and the war.^ 

In the State election of 1853, the vote stood in round 
numbers as follows : 

' Every Governor of the State, elected in Massachusetts since 1851, except 
one, either became finally, or was originally, of the Republican party. Mr. 
Gardner at length acted with the Conservatives. The same combination of 
forces which elected Mr. Sumner to the Senate of the United States also elected 
Mr. Wilson afterwards. The Massachusetts delegation to the Congressional 
House of Representatives fell at first altogether into the hands of the Know- 
Nothings, who were soon pushed aside by the Freesoil managers ; the latter 
taking the places of those at whose expense they had played this adroit 
political game. See also, particularly. Appendix V, 
11* 



Washbtjen. Bishop. 


WlXSON. 


Wlilg. Bern. 


Freesoil. 


60,000. 35,000 


29,000 


At the election of 1854 the followmo; was 


Gaednee, \YASHBirEN. Bishop. 


"WiLSOx 


'now-Nqfhing. Whig. Bern. 


Freesoil. 


80,000 26,000 13,000 


6,000 



250 ORIGIN" OF THE LATE WAJB. 

Scattering. 
6,000 

result : 

Scattering. 
1,100 

It is obvious, therefore, that the Know-Nothing Governor 
was elected by a combination of the Whig, Democratic, Free- 
soil, and Scattering votes of the preceding year. Of these, 
the Whigs contributed more than half the votes they had 
given for their candidate in 1853, the Democrats and Free- 
soilers each more than 20,000, and the scattering A^oters of 
that year a still larger proportion. In fact, the Whigs had 
themselves prepared the way for being broken down. It 
was the determinate purpose of their Democratic and Free- 
soil opponents to break them down, as they had already 
evinced in the coalition of 1851 ; and both took advantage 
of the new movement to desert their own organizations for 
the time, in order to effect that object. The demolition was 
complete ; a large jsroportion of the Whig party, on this 
occasion, assisting in their own immolation. As Voltaire 
once remarked of his countrymen, at a particular juncture of 
affairs : " All parties were losing liberty, and doing their 
best to destroy her." 

The Whig party, once, and for so long a period, invinci- 
ble in Massachusetts, and which, by the ability and distin- 
guished character of the statesmen whom it brought forward, 
had secured for the State such a j)redominant influence in 
aational affairs, was henceforth a scattered remnant. The 
Know-Nothings elected State officers for the two succeeding 
years, though by a combination somewhat varying from that 
of 1854, in both. For example, in 1855, the Know-Nothing 
vote fell off nearly 30,000 from that of the former year; the 
Whig vote was reduced one-half, no doubt, for the benefit of 
the Know-Nothings; the Democrats and Free-Soilers re- 
turned to their allegiance: the former castino- about their 



FEEESOIL TEEGIVEKSATION. ' 251 

usual number, the latter more than upon any previous occa- 
sion.* In 1856, the year of election of President, the entire 
Freesoil vote of the State (103,811) was cast for Mr. Fre- 
mont; the other candidates being Mr. Buchanan (37,600) 
and Mr. Fillmore (19,189). But the vote for Governor was 
distributed as follows : 



Gakdnek. 


Beach. 


Gordon. 


Bell. 


J. QurNCT, Sr. 


Know- Nothing. 


Dem. 


Whig. 


'Whig. 


Freesoil. 


92,467 


40,582 


10,082 


7,075 


6,316 



In the election of 1857, Mr. Banks, the candidate of the 
Freesoilers, who now called themselves " Fremont-men " and 
" Fremonters," "^ received* the entire vote of that party, 
amounting to 60,978, except, perhaps, less than two hundred 
scattering votes; Mr. Gardner (K. N.), who had lost the 
confidence of the Freesoilers, having now the votes of such 
Conservative Americans and Whigs as chose to take any 
part in the election, making in the aggregate 37,716, and Mr. 
Beach, the Democratic candidate, receiving 30,929 votes. 
The extraordinary facility of the Freesoilers, at change of 
votes for a purpose, as well as the completeness of their or- 
ganization, is shown by their action for three- successive 
years. For example, in 1853, Henry Wilson (F. S.; received 
29,000 votes; in 1854, 6,000, the party in general having 
voted for Gardner (K. N". or Amer.) ; in 1855, Rockwell (F. 
S.) received 36,000 votes; in 1856, Gardner again had their 
support, except 6,000 votes cast for Josiah Quincy, Senr., 

1 Gardner. Walley. Beach. Kock-well. 

Know- Nothing. Whig. p Dem. Freesoil. 

61,305 13,332 . 34,644 36,622 

^ Surely, nothing could be more iudicative of a declining state of public 
sentiment in a free country, and of a somewhat humble standard of political 
moraUty, than for a party to designate itself by the name of its candidate, in- 
stead of choosing one suggestive of its principles of action. It is admitted- 
that the latter course would have been difficult, indeed impossible, with the 
"Fremonters," so miscellaneous and incongruous were the elements of tlieir 
party organization. It was in a higher spirit, at a period when the Demo- 
crats chose to depcribe themselves as "Jackson-men," that Judge Sprague, 
of Massachusetts, then a member of the U. S. Senate, pronoimced himself " no 
man's man." 



252 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAJS. 

• 

and in 1857 Banks was elected by the entire vote of the 
Freesoilers (Fremonters or Repuhlicans) in coalition with 
Know-Nothings, Whigs, and some few Democrats. 

Mr, Banks, who had obtained a seat in Congress in 1856, 
as " a Fremonter," was elected Governor for three successive 
terms. He was succeeded, at the Presidential election of 
1860, by Mr. Andrew, an avowed abolitionist and sympa- 
thizer with "John Brown," who was annually chosen 
Governor until, in September, 1865, he yielded his pre- 
tensions to another "Republican," Since the year 1856, 
when the small body of Whigs yet adhering to former prin- 
ciples divided upon two candidates, they have made no sep- 
arate nominations, nor pretended to any political organiza- 
tion ; except that, in the Presidential campaign of 1860, 
when an attempt was made to reconstruct the party, they 
brought forward a ticket for State officers on that side. 
Since 1857, the Republicans, succeeding to the "Fremonters," 
have had a decided majority in the State. The opposition 
has appeared under different names, and with varying 
strength, until finally the only remaining organizations were 
the Republican and the Democratic, 

In the midst of this mutation of parties, the former has 
owed not a little of the advantage it has gained and so far 
kept, to ancieiit political prejudices. Upon the decay and 
final fall of the Whig party, there were very many who had 
all their lives been contending against the Democracy, or 
had inherited strong sentiments of repugnance to it, who 
could not reconcile it wil<^ their feelings to act in concert 
T^ith those called by that name ; notwithstanding the self- 
e,vident fact, that the state of afiriirs which caused the origi- 
nal division in the progress of time had become completely 
reversed. The Democrats, in the former contests between 
themselves and the Federalists, of whom the Whigs were 
successors, had been regarded by their opponents as little 
better than disorganizers and radicals. Indeed, the title 
often applied to them, as a stigma at an early date, had been 
that of Jacobin^ derived from the extreme section of .the old 



THE LAWLESS ORIGIN OF REPUBLICANISM. 253 

French revolutionists. But the Democratic party had long 
been growing more and more conservative ; and, by convic- 
tion and the force of events, had become, at last, in a signal 
degree, the defenders of the principles of the Constitution. 
Old causes of controversy between themselves and the 
Whigs had, one by one, disappeared, or were reduced to 
comparative insignificance, by the vital questions at stake 
affecting the very integrity of the Union. 

On the other hand, nothing could be more clear, than that 
the Republican party owed its origin to the most unqualified 
radicalism. Many of its most prominent leaders — those af- 
terwards chosen Governors of States, Senators or Representa- 
tives in Congress, members of the several legislative bodies 
in the North, and persons placed by the action of the party 
in various positions of infiuence ; lecturers before literary so- 
cieties, and professed ministers of religion, who, to the deg- 
radation of their calling and the deadly injury of their di- 
vine mission, took no small part in political exhortation, and 
often in political management, on that side — were notorious 
radicals in politics, in literature, in the relations of social life 
and in religion. Thej^ began by preferring a sentiment to a 
principle — speculations originating with themselves, to the 
general system of ideas which forms the basis of all civilized 
society, and to which it again and again reverts, for peace 
and order and liappiness, however it may be casually dis- 
turbed, or temporarily set aside. They proceeded in opposi- 
tion to the settlement, by custom and law, of our own civil 
institutions. They were, manifestly, neither the wisest, nor, 
in any sense, the ablest men of theii- times. Others of a dif- 
ferent character, persons eminent in the community, distin- 
guished for sagacity, public experience, and comprehensive 
A'iews, and beyond the suspicion of dishonest moti^'es, saw 
and often earnestly warned their fellow-citizens, that popular 
indulgence to the extravagant theories of sophists, specula- 
tors, charlatans, and adventurers, would lead either to the 
dissolution of the great Union, founded by the prudent fore- 
siojht and magnanimous consent of their fathers : or to disas- 



254: OEIGm OF THE LATE WAR. 

ters scarcely less to be deprecated and dreaded. And yet, 
out of distaste for a mere name, multitudes of the more staid 
and apparently considerate citizens of the North chose to 
vote and to act in concert with the radicals — though the de- 
signs of these men could not bvit tend to the subversion of 
the Constitution — rather than acknowledge fellowship with 
the Democrats, who were bent upon upholding it, and were 
manifestly devoted to its sound maintenance and preservation. 

The party under whose leaders they chose to range them- 
selves had grown up out of weakness, not of strength ; and 
those leaders could scarcely pretend any rational title to their 
confidence. Many of those who afterwards thus acted with 
it, and voted constantly for its extreme agents, while en- 
gaged in driving sectional disputes to extremities — under 
the futile pretext that they did not approve of its excesses — 
had been originally among its most ardent and uncompro- 
mising opponents. Though men are often led unconsciously 
along, in the turmoil of popular delusions, until they lose all 
sense of the restraint and control of sober reason ; yet here 
they had landmarks, all the way, to point out the right di- 
rection, and beacons to warn them of their danger. The 
arguments and entreaties of Clay and of Webster and their 
great compeers, for more than a generation, were but appeals 
to the established doctrines of the Constitution, and echoes 
of the solemn expostulations of Washington — in that wise 
and most aifecting address, conceived and uttered for their 
future guidance, which had no archetype, and has no paral- 
lel in the history of civil institutions among mankind. 

Happily, this defection was not universal. There was 
still no inconsiderable remnant of the old Whig party — and 
with it were many of those whose character and abilities had 
shed the highest lustre upon its past history, who yielded to 
no such scruples ; but were willing heartily to unite with 
the company, under whatever designation, whose object it 
was to save the sinking ship. It was out of their power, or 
that of their compatriots, to avert the tide that was sweeping 
the republic towards the abyss of ills, in which it was at 



OEIGm OF KNOW-NOTHINGISM. 255 

length engulphed ; biit there can he no question tliat their 
strength and steadiness, though they were virulently assailed 
and sometimes harshly persecuted by the dominant j^arty, 
still exercised a powerful influence in correcting many wild 
opinions of the day and in checking many excesses. And, 
best of all it is, that they have mainly helped to keep alive 
the sacred flame of pure constitutional principle, in the light 
of which, we may still hope, that our eyes are yet to behold the 
restoration of the country to order and constitutional liberty. 
Among the most illustrious of those who earliest took this 
stand was Mr. Choate ; and to the dead, at least, the tribute 
of completed honor is due. 

The Native American, or Know-Nothing party, which 
had apparently sprung into such sudden life, and which made 
a demonstration of such an extraordinary character in several 
of the Southern as well as in many of the JSTorthern States, 
was, after all, not of veiy recent origin. On the contrary, 
though existing obscurely, and possessing no political influ- 
ence until its secret and extensive organization took place, at 
the period of its meteoric outburst in 1853, it had iieverthe- 
less then been working up whatever materials it could find 
for a party, during fifteen or twenty years. In reality, those 
divisions of opinion upon national topics, which had brought 
the Whig party to partial dissolution, afibrded the opportu- 
nity, in the view of many leading persons throughout the 
Union, of building up, out of the diverse and somewhat 
loosely-lying elements of the various parties, a j^owerful 
" American " organization. Many more persons of distin- 
guished character and position at the South united themselves 
with it, than at the Xorth, Among these was Mr. Critten- 
den, of Kentucky, who had, shortly before, been Attorney- 
General of the United States under Mr. Fillmore's adminis- 
tration ; Mr. A. H. H. Stuart, of Virginia, Secretary of the * 
Interior, at the same period ; and Mr. Zollicoffer, a leading 
member of Congress from Tennessee, who fell, in command 
of the Confederate troops, at the battle of Mill Sj^rings, in 
Kentucky, in the second year of the Avar. Of course, no 



256 OKIGm OF THE LATE WAR. 

sectional views could have been in contemplation by those 
who set this American movement in active operation. In- 
deed, it began with the most emphatic recognition of the 
settlement arranged by the compromise measures of 1850. 

Mr. John M. Clayton, of Delaware, who had held the 
post of Secretary of State under President Taylor, but is be- 
lieved not to have been in personal relations with the organ- 
ization, in a speech delivered by him in New Jersey, in 
November, 1854, declared that the Know-Nothing party 
" will refuse to test the suitableness of any man for public 
office, by the question whether he is for or against the mere 
extension of slavery in some territory of the United States." 
It is obvious that such an exclusion of the question was, 
practically, an allowance of the extension of slavery in 
the territory. But at a "National Council" held by the 
party, at Philadelphia, in June, 1855, its principles upon this 
point, and upon others of signal moment in relation to the 
general subject of slavery, are laid down in a manner so dis- 
tinct as to leave no room for any question. It may be Avell 
to copy from this Platform its very careful and elaborate ex- 
position of the doctrines professed by it on this topic. It 
will be observed, that this organization, assuming to have 
arisen itself upon " the ruins " of the Whig and the Demo- 
cratic parties, throws out a very strong intimation, as to the 
alleged irreconcilable antagonism between the two. There 
can be no doubt, therefore, that the "Council" intended to 
charge upon the late Whigs extreme antislavery opinions, in 
contrast with those which it imputed to the late Democrats. 
The following is numbered " Twelve " in the series of propo- 
sitions in their manifesto : 

"The American party, having arisen upon the nuns and in spite of tlie 
AVhig and Democratic parties, cannot be held in any manner responsible for 
the obnoxious acts or violated pledges of either. And the systematic agitation 
of the slavery question by those parties having elevated sectional hostility into 
a positive element of political power, and brought our institutions into peril, it 
has, therefore, become the imperative duty of the American party to interpose 
for the purpose of giving peace to the country and perpetuity to the Union. 
And as experience has shown it impossible to reconcile opinions so extreme 



KNOW-NOTHESra TEEGIVEESATION. 257 

as those which separate the disputants, and as there can be no dishonor in 
submitting to the law, the National Council has deemed it the best guarantee 
of common justice and of future peace, to abide by and mamtarn the exisiinrf 
laws up07i the subject of slavery, as a final and conclusive settlement of that sub- 
jcd, in fact and in substance. 

" And, regarding it the highest duty to avow their opinions on a subject 
so important, in distinct and unequivocal terms, it is hereby declared as the 
sense of this National Council, that Congress has no power, under the Consti- 
tution, to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the States where it does or 
may exist, or tq exclude any State from admission into the Union, because its 
Constitution does or does not recognize the institution of slavery as a part of 
its social system ; and, expressly pretermitting any expression of opinion upon 
the j)ower of Congress to establish or prohibit slavery in any Territory, it is the 
sense of the National Council that Congress oxight not to legislate upon the 
subject of slavery within the territory of the United States, and that any in- 
terference by Congress with slavery, as it exists in the District of Columbia, 
would be a violation of the compact by which the State of Maryland ceded the 
District to the United States, and a breach of the national faith." 

Singularly enough, these very explicit proj)Ositions are 
not only identical in sentiment with those severally adopted 
by the Whig and by the Democratic Conventions, held at 
Baltimore, in the year 1852, but they go much farther. Dis- 
daining any seeming reticence in regard to particular meas- 
ures, which the latter bodies may have thought expedient, 
the National Council entered into full detail ; and as to the 
grand subject of controversy, it assumed the" extremest 
Southern ground, with this difference — that, while the South- 
ern Democrats denied the power of Congress, as a matter of 
Constitutional right, to legislate in relation to slavery in the 
territories, the Council held that the higher motive of moral 
oUigation ought to induce it to refrain. For, although the 
law is entitled to obedience, while it exists, yet it may be 
changed ; but the requirement of moral duty is inherent and 
immutable. But strong as their positions were, and truly 
patriotic, also, in correspondence with the general sense of 
the people, so far as this could be supposed to be represented 
by the manifestoes of Conventions composed of the delegates 
of the several parties, the " Americans," strange to say, re- 
versed it all in the course of a very few months. 



258 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

The "Xatioual Coimcil" in June, 1855, assnmecT the na- 
tional title exhibited above, and the Northern delegates then 
"went home to their several quarters of the country, and in 
their " State Councils " appeared to be a very different order 
of men. This fact is the more striking, because, differing 
from other poKtical paities, which are voluntary organiza- 
tions, the members of which are held to each other only by 
their individual political convictions, and act, on each emer- 
gency, according to their individual turn of mind, the Amer- 
ican party was a close corporation, into which the several 
members were introduced by formal ceremonies, under the 
secret sanction of successive oaths, as they advanced fi'om 
one degree of illumination to another.' In November of the 
same year (1855) a Know-Nothing Convention was held at 
Cincinnati, composed of delegates from sevei'al of the North- 
ern and Northwestern States. The following is an extract 
from one of the resolutions adopted by them : 

" That the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an infraction of the 
plighted faith of the nation, and that it should be restored ; and, if eflbrts to 
that end should fail, Congress should refuse to admit into the Union any State 
tolerating slavery which shall be formed out of any portion of the territory 
from which that institution was excluded by that Compromise." 

This complete overturn of opinion, between the time of 
meeting of the National Council iia June, and that of the 

' The following extract from a letter of Mr. Choate to a friend out of the 
country, dated June 29, 1855, and given in Prof. Brown's Memoir, will serve 
to show something of the existing state of politics : 

" Your estate is gracious that keeps you out of hearing of our politics. 
Any thing more low, obscene, purulent, the manifold heavings of history have 
not cast up. We shall come to the worship of onions, cats, and things ver- 
miculate. ' Renown and grace are dead.' ' There's nothing serious in mor- 
tality.' K any wiser saw, or instance, ancient or modern, occurred to me to 
express the enormous, impossible inanity of American things, I should utter 
it. Bless your lot, then, which gives you to volcanoes, earthquakes, feather- 
cinctured chiefs, and dusky sights of the tropics. I wish I was there with all 
my heart — that I do. 

. " After all, the Democratic chance is best. The whole South is Pierce's, 
I think — so is the foreign vote of the North. So will be Pennsylvania, I 
guess." 



A POLITICAL GAME. 259 

CoiiYcntion at Ciucinnati, in November, at once unfolds the 
causes of that otherwise inexplicable fluctuation of*votes for 
several successive years, already recapitulated, at the annual 
elections in Massachusetts, and serves as an illustration also 
of similar revolutions, at the same period, in various other ' 
Northern States, The Freesoilers, in fact, had introduced 
themselves into the " Councils " of the " Americans." On 
what pretext they were received, it is difficult to imagine ; 
since it is evident that December's snow and the flowers of 
June are no more at odds, than had been the sentiments of 
the two factions on the absorbing topic of the day. And, if 
Mr. Clayton, a year before the National Council uttered its 
emphatic propositions, had rightly interpreted the sentiment 
at that time existing among the " Americans," then the Free- 
soilers, of whom many of the more conspicuous entered into 
that fellowslaip with the Know-Nothing lodges, could have 
stepped upon that " platform," only in litter betrayal of all 
their previously professed political opinions and moral con- 
victions. 

The truth is, since the movement of the secret organiza- 
tion seemed to have taken deep hold of the popular mind, 
the Freesoil leaders sought its shades, probably in order to 
save themselves from political nonentity ; and, at first, could 
have had little reasonable expectation of obtaining much 
foothold for their own special dogmas among the national 
"American" massesT Still, they were persons of a very 
adventurous disposition, who lost nothing for want of j)ush- 
ing ; and, it is likely, were not without their hopes. Indeed, 
they had been reduced to that extremity, by the quiescent 
state of public sentirhent, for some years after the passage of 
the several Acts of 1850, that their frame of mind might be 
likened to that of a distinguished character in "Paradise 
Lost," when he took counsel with his compeers to see — 

" What reenforcement we may gain from hope ; 
If not, what I'esolution from despair." 

Hence it happened, that in 1854, the Freesoil party, 
which, at the preceding annual election, had given Mr. 



260 OKIGIN" OF THE LATE WAK. 

Heniy Wilson 29,000 votes, for Governor of Massachusetts, 
now cast its main strength for Mr. Gardner — under instruc- 
tions doubtless — while, in order to keep up the appearance 
of the thing, the insignificant number of 6,000 votes only was 
given to Mr. Wilson. At the next annual election in 1855, 
when the prospect for " fusion " had become less promising, 
in consequence of the resolutions of the "National Council," 
already cited, the Freesoilers returned to their OAvn resorts 
again, and furnished their entire vote for their candidate, Mr. 
Rockwell, that for Mr. Gardner falling off in the same pro- 
portion. In 1856, the fusion was fairly consummated in pur- 
pose, if not in full execution. It was the year of election for 
President ; affairs had become so complicated that it was 
difficult to control popular sentiment, or to induce the masses 
to exercise much discrimination ; and, accordingly, while the 
entire Freesoil vote, in Massachusetts, and most of the 
American, was given for Mr.- Fremont, for President; the 
candidate for Governor, Mr. Gardner, who was thought to 
stand in, at least, a doubtful relation to " Fusion," received 
a smaller vote than Mr. Fremont, and a certain number of 
impracticable Freesoilers cast their ballots for the venerable 
Mr. Josiah Quincy, Senr., then not far from ninety years of 
age.' 

* The vote stood as follows : 

Fremont. Buchanan. Fillmoke. 

103,811 37,660 19,819 

Gakdnek. Beach. Gordon. Bell. Quincy. 

Fusion. Dem. Whig. Whig. Freesoil. 

99,457 40,082 10,082 7,075 6,316 

Mr. Quincy, however, had amply vindicated his title to be the " standard- 
bearer" of this faction. On the 5th of June of this same year, 1856, he 
made a public address to the inhabitants of the town of Quincy, in which he 
declared of what he styled " the slave power," that — 

" The provisions of the Constitution of the United States which gave to 
them the right of their slaves in the balance of power has been the great mis- 
fortune of this Union, and will be its destruction unless the free States rally 
to its rescue, and take jwsscssion of the Government.'''' 
And again — 
" At the coming election, I cannot doubt that the free States * * will 



FTISION OF KNOW-NOTHINGS AND BLACK-JREPUBLICANS. 261 

The work of " Fusion," at leugth, weut swimmingly on. 
It became complete in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which 
passed correspondent resolutions, early in January, 1856. 
At an " American " State Convention held at Binghamton, 
in New York, at the same period, the course of action was 
of a similar character ; bringing the party into close relations 
with those who were then beginning to be styled the 
" Black-Republicans ; " and in Conventions, held in the 
several New England States, equal progress was made 
towards the same projected consummation.* Thus, by the 
proceedings of these bodies, representing the "American" 
l^arty, in the Eastern, Middle, and Western States, its na- 
tional position, taken in 1855, had become sectional early in 
1856, The die was finally cast, however, at a meeting of the 
" National Council," held at Philadelphia, on the 22d of Febru- 
ary, 1856. The legal and the moral obligations, set forth in 
the 12th proposition of the "National Council," held at the 
same city, in June, 1855, were utterly repudiated by the vote 
of a large majority of the members, on the latter occasion. 
In their 13th article, they took Republican ground; declaring 
" opposition to the reckless and unwise policy of the present 
administration," amongst other things, " as shown in reopen- 
ing sectional agitation, by the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise " — and " as shown in its vacillating course on the 
Kansas and Nebraska question " — a singular charge, whether 
just or not, to be preferred by those, who, in bringing it, ex- 
posed this comj)lete revolution of their own opinions on this 
very point, within little more than six preceding months ! 

ial-e possession of this Government ; restorfe to the Constitution the proportions 
of power established by Washington ; " (compare this clause with the preced- 
ing paragraph in regard to the Constitution established by Washington) " re- 
instate in full force that barrier against the extension of slavery called the 
' Missouri Compromise ; ' make Kansas a free State ; and. put an end forever 
to the addition of any more slave States to this Union — duties to be ful- 
filled at any hazard — even of the dissolution of the Union itself." 

' See letter of Mr. Carruthers, member of Congress from Missouri, dated 
at Washington, February 28th, 1856, in Cluskey's " Pohtical Text Book," 
p. 108 d seq. 



262 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

In fact, tliey entirely abandoaecl, on this occasion, the 
specific grounds upon which their own organization was 
founded, by providing in the final article which was then 
adopted, for — "A free and open discussion of all political 
principles embraced in our platform." The Freesoil neo- 
phytes in the "American" seminary had thus proved stronger 
than their masters, and the victory was finally achieved. 
Accordingly, from this " National Council," upon the adop- 
tion of the new j^latform, a desj^atch was forwarded to a 
" Black-Republican " Convention, sitting at Pittsburg, at the 
same time, in the following emphatic language : 

" The American party is no longer united. Raise the Republican ban- 
ner. Let there be no further extension of slavery. The Americans are 
with you." 

The Missouri Compromise, the alleged repeal of which 
was now made the new, and, as it proved, the fatal source of 
sectional discord, had been repealed, as has been heretofore 
remarked in this volume, in letter as well as in spii'it, by the 
measures of adjustment adopted by' Congress in 1850. The 
leaders of extreme Southern opinion had then professed their 
contentment with the doctrine of that Compromise, if it 
should be carried oiit literally and in good faith. The line 
of that Compromise would have left all of Utah north of 
latitude 36° 30'; nearly the whole of Xew Mexico south of 
it ; and would have divided California into nearly equal 
parts, above and below that degree of latitude. It was im- 
possible, in a moral sense, to accede to their proposition ; be- 
cause the people of California had already adopted a Consti- 
tution excluding slavery, preparatory to admission into the 
Union ; and, although Congress could not, certainly, under- 
take to force slavery upon a territory which had deliberately 
rejected it ; yet the admission of California, to the neglect 
of the line agreed upon in 1820, was, in fact, by its practical 
operation, the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. The 
same measures of 1850 provided for the future admission of 
Utah and Xew Mexico, without reference to the exclusion 
of slavery. In regard to the former, its geographical situa- 



POtlXICAL ESEMOEALITY. 263 

tion rendered the omission of no practical importance. It 
"^as contended that slavery had been abolished in the latter 
while a province of Mexico, although a score or two of slaves 
were actually held there by the territorial residents in 1850. 

In these three instances, therefore, of simultaneous lecr^c- 
lation — for, although separately acted upon, they vrere parts 
of the same plan of adjustment — the principle of the Missouri 
Compromise had been deliberately and entirely disregarded. 
The circumstances of the case rendered this action of Con- 
gress inevitable ; but it, nevertheless, was an absolute repeal 
of the Compromise — unless it can be maintained, that an 
agreement violated on one side, when convenient to do so, 
can be resumed and enforced against other jiarties to it, 
when the convenience of the first may make its restimption, 
in their opinion, desirable. The general adjustment of con- 
flicting interests and sentiments, involving this repeal, had 
been solemnly assented to by Whigs, Democrats, and Amer- 
icans, in their several National Conventions. It was only 
when the principle came to be afterwards applied in another 
direction, that the new popular outcry was raised against it 
in the North. This was made available for party purposes, 
by the coalition with the Freesoilers of the ex-Whigs and 
now staunch Americans — who indignantly denied the appli- 
cation to the territories of Kansas and Nebraska of the pre- 
cise principles, which, six months before, the latter had 
stoutly affirmed were applicable to all territories what- 
soever ! 

A state of things like this betokens, it must be confessed, 
very little regard for public virtue. In fact, the secret 
organization of the Know-Nothing party had proved of most 
pernicious influence. So far as its sphere extended, it had 
the efliect to weaken among the people the old spirit of sell- 
dependence; it tended to modify and to restrain honest 
individuality of character, to repress freedom of thought, 
and to chain down freedom of action. The efiect of this 
process appeared in the sur2)rising revolution of ideas which 
the i^arties underwent, at the bidding of its new managers. 



264- OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

A certain proj)ortion of the Americans held back, it is true, 
and haA'e never since acted in concert with the Freesoilers ; 
hut the main body went to swell the rushing tide of that 
now popular movement, which, in 1852, had thrown but 
157,000 votes for Mr. John P. Hale, its candidate for Presi- 
dent, but in 1856, for Mr. Fremont, 1,354,000. Indeed, the 
range of political sentiment and the tone of political honor 
presented a melancholy contrast to the standard of an earlier 
period. It was a day of feeble and failing principle, of 
deadened sensibilities, of decaying patriotism, of " defections 
on the right hand and fallings-away to the left " ' — in a word, 
of almost complete political demoralization. It was pecu- 
liarly unfortunate, that, at a period when wisdom, integrity, 
true sentiment, unflinching love of country, and prudent 
statesmanship, were most needed in the national counsels, 
this new coalition brought forward and placed in prominent 
positions large numbers of those who were little qualified to 
turn the public mind in the right direction, and not a few 
who were fully bent upon leading it astray. As Carlyle re- 
marks, somewhere, in reference to a certain period of English 
history, " The times were great and the men were small." 

At an early point in the brief annals of the American 
party, not a few persons of merit and distinction had given 
it their countenance, in the hope, doubtless, that it might be- 
come available to the public welfare; but it soon showed 
itself subject to inferior influences. As a class of more ordi- 
nary and less scrupulous candidates for popular favor worked 
their way to the surface of affairs, the men of better sense 
and mformation, of more enlarged views and more unselfish 
ambition, who, by character and ability and honorable inter- 
est in the public cause, were entitled to popular respect — 
were compelled to stand aside, or voluntarily did so; be- 
cause unwilling to engage in a low and somewhat tumultu- 
ous scramble for place, though they were never so raucfi 
needed for the public services as at that very emergency. 



> See David Deans, in the " Heart of Mid-Lothian." 



THE FAITHFUL WHIGS. 265 

Whether such scruples, however worthy of sympathy, are 
justifiable in a republic, or were consistent with the pros- 
perity and safety of the State, is another question. De- 
mosthenes acldressecl himself to the "fierce Democratic" of 
Athens in person. There is danger of being swept away 
by the torrent of popular madness, or of becoming the 
victim of pati'iotic zeal — as was his fate, and is his fome ; 
but the struggle is worth the trial. 

In Great Britain, those who, " having to advise the 
public," seek the popular suffrage for election to the 
House of Commons, are not deterred from the hustings by 
the rude and sometimes extremely rough usage to which 
the mob may capriciously subject them ; and surely, never 
had there been more pressing occasion, in any country, for 
all that generous enthusiasm and manly resolution could do, 
to shame the panders of disorganization, and to cheer the 
timid and despondent to the performance of theu- duty. It 
is a humiliating reflection, that the country was swept over, 
and, to a large extent, controlled by a class of men, who 
made up in activity what they lacked in other important re- 
spects; w^hile a higher order of citizens scarcely exerted 
their due influence to prevent the deplorable turn of affairs, 
to which all things seemed only too surely tending. What- 
ever the Republican party may since have been, it is upon 
such a condition of things that it was originally built. 

It is by no means to be forgotten, that, notwithstanding 
those large desertions from the Whig party, first to the 
American, and afterwards to become incorporated in the Re- 
publican ranks ; yet a very considerable body of the old 
substantial stock retained the ancient political faith, and 
manifested it by correspondent action, in both sections of the 
country, up to the very last moment before the revolt of the 
South. Though no longer possessed of power as a national 
organization, they stood firm, to the last, to those great 
principles which they deemed essential to the existence of 
the Union, as they certainly were, and are to its constitu- 
tional being. Hence, in anticipation of the general election 
12 



266 ORIGIK OF THE LATE WAE. 

of 1856, at which Mr. Buchanan proved to be the successful 
candidate, a convention, on their part, was held at Baltimore, 
attended by numerous delegates from the Southern equally 
with the Northern States, and which could hardly ever have 
been surpassed by any similar political assembly in the 
country, for the ability of its members and its general re- 
spectability and dignity of character. Scattered, and di- 
minished and almost desj^ondent of the future of the Union, 
as the party had then become, they had the honor, at least, 
of coming forward as sincere and manly remonstrants against 
the evidently downward progress of national aifairs. They 
nominated Mr. Fillmore as their candidate for President ; 
and, at the ensuing election, out of the aggi'egate number of 
something more than 4,000,000, were able to give him nearly 
900,000 votes, of which considerably more than one-half 
were cast in the slave States. They rallied, too, as is well 
known, in 1860, under much less propitious circumstances, 
and in numbers very materially reduced.^ 

But if the late Whig party, leaving out of the account 
this noble and steadfast remnant, dwindled and perished, for 
want of stability and courage ; the Democratic, on the other 
hand, subjected its rising glories to eclipse, through the 
delusions of over-confidence, at first ; and finally, suffered 
overwhelming defeat, by the self-sought and violent disrup- 
tion of its own ranks. The Whigs had too often practised 
the ruinous policy of temporizing concessions to the several 
factions, which they hoped thus to conciliate to their support. 
As a party they thus loosened their own standing ground, 
and cut off the inducements of their own adherents to remain 
with them. It was the natural result of their conduct, that 
they weakened, from time to time, their own position ; so 
that the earnest and unyielding factions, which thought only 
of building up themselves, as occasion oflered, drew off the 
timid and unsafe, the doubters on questions of party prin- 

' In 1856, the vote for the Fillmore electors was 885,960 ; in 1860, for the 
Bell and Everett electors, 590,631. 



DEMOCEATIC STEADINESS. 267 

ciple and supposed points of conscience ; together with those 
who saw something more attractive in the zealous determina- 
tion of the comparative few, than in the vacillating purj^ose 
of the greater number. But that faithful remnant — true to 
the last, amid the scoffs and derisions and persecutions which 
often await fidelity to principle — like the hand of prophets 
whom Obadiah, in evil times, hid in the cave — and who, like 
them, had denounced woe and disaster to the multitude in 
vain — the genius of the constitution, if ever again enthroned, 
will welcome with words never more worthily bestowed — 

" Thou who wast constant in our ills, be joyful in our joy." 

The Democrats, amidst the hesitations of the great body 
of their opponents, were like the abolitionists in this respect 
— that they had the merit of standing stiffly by their party 
associates and party doctrines — sometimes, indeed, even after 
these latter had fairly gone out from the range of political 
affairs ; but they thus confirmed the wavering, kept up the 
resolution of the faint-hearted, and, until their fatal division 
at Charleston, in 1860, maintained the discipline and accus- 
tomed strength of their organization. When they carried 
the election of Mr. Pierce, in 1852, it was effected very 
largely by the help of dissensions among the Whigs, which 
tended materially to swell their own ranks, and to infuse a 
spirit of apathy into those of their lately successful and still 
formidable rivals ; who, if they had remained united, might 
again and again have been triumphant, until all signs of dan- 
ger to our institutions had passed entirely away. For, at 
that period, the main body of both great parties at the North 
was substantially united upon constitutional princij^les in re- 
gard to slavery, and upon incidental questions resulting from 
it ; while the South, taking all points of party difference to- 
gether, was not very unequally divided between the Demo- 
crats and the Whigs. But as soon as the Democratic party 
became distracted, the preponderance of power passed at 
once to the Republicans — consisting of Freesoilers, Fusion- 
ists, Whigs, who weakly imagined that national affairs would 



268 OEiGiJsr OF the late wak. 

be conducted by a sectional administration on the old doc- 
trines of their party ; unsound and self-seeking Democrats, 
released from party allegiance, who saw in which direction 
political victory inclined ; and the whole miscellaneous mul- 
titude of those middle-men, who hang loosely upon the out- 
skirts of all parties, and, at the last moment, cast their own 
weight into the heaviest scale. But the most efficient instru- 
ment of success to the new Republican coalition, was inher- 
ited by it from the effete Nnow-Nothing party — and that was 
the systematized machinery and much of the material of 
party organization. 



CHAPTER X. 

Administration of President Pierce. — Position of the Democratic Party.— President 
Pierce's Message to Congress in December, 1853. — " Domestic Controversies passing 
away." — The Ciyil War began in Kansas. — Statement of the Question in regard to 
Kansas. — Mr. Webster's Views of the Effect of the Compromise of 1850. — Mr. Clay's 
Opinion of the Impolicy of an Imaginary Line. — The Bill for the Organization of the 
Territory passes the House, making no Mention of Compromise or Slavery, and is 
introduced into the Senate by Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on Territories, with- 
out amendment. — The Debate in the Senate chiefly in regard to the Kights of the 
Aborigines. — The Bill laid on the Table, for further Consideration of this Topic, and not 
taken up during the Session. — At the next Session, Mr. Douglas inti-oduces (January 
4th, 1864) an Amendment to the Bill, proposing the Specific Repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. — The large Majority in favor of it. — Memorials to Congress, in opposi- 
tion to its Passage — one from three thousand and fifty Clergymen of New England. — 
Effect of this Clerical Movement upon the Public Mind. — Final Passage of the Bill by 
the House. — Action of the North. — The "Emigrant Aid" Companies. — Secret Associa- 
tion of Members of Congress to resist the Objects of the Act. — The several Eeports to 
Congress — Further Proceedings as to Kansas. — Opposite Opinions of Mr. Davis and 
Mr. Yancey. — Position of Mr. Douglas. — Extension of Slave Territory does not mean 
Increase of Slavery. — The reasons why the Adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was 
imavoidable. 

The administration of President Pierce, beginning on 
the 4th of March, 1853, was introduced to the duties of office 
under circumstances singularly auspicious. The pusillanimity 
of the Whigs, and the dissatisfaction occasioned in both sec- 
tions of their party — on the one hand, because the candidate 
was not thought to stand " square on the platform," and, on 
the othei', because the platform itself was offensive' to large 
numbers of those who acted, or professed to act, with the 
party — had given the Democrats great advantage in the elec- 
tion. They seemed to not a few of their former opponents 

' Nothing waa more common than to hear men say : " I shall vote for the 
candidate, but I spit upon the platform." 



270 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

the only organized body left, with any reasonable chance of 
future jDolitical power, which was inspired with the spirit of 
nationality, and impressed with broad ideas of the inestima- 
ble value of the Union. Upon them, in fact, had now be- 
come imposed the duty, and with it the opportunity, to vin- 
dicate thoroughly the soundness of those measures of pacifi- 
cation, which had owed so much to the efforts of the two 
most eminent Whigs in the land ; and through the perma- 
nent establishment of those principles, by a wise course of 
domestic policy, to give the country secure rest from the 
only alarming cause of disquiet which it had actually ever 
encountered. 

The President was in the vigor of manhood, distinguished 
for ability and ready eloquence, and a spirit of warm-hearted 
patriotism, and was of no little experience in public business ; 
and, not long before his inauguration, he had suffered a pe- 
culiarly afflicting domestic calamity, which enlisted for him 
the profoundest public sympathy, and tended to check any dis- 
position to captious party criticism. A cabinet composed of 
such persons as Mr. Marcy, of New York, Mr. Guthrie, of 
Kentucky, Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, and Mr. Gushing, of 
Massachusetts, with others not so generally known, but men 
of more than ordinary mark, could not but inspire unusual 
public confidence. It almost immediately acquired the pop- 
ular appellation of " The brilliant Cabinet," and promised the 
ablest management of business ; though, with the exception 
of foreign complications, to which Mr. Marcy, the Secretary 
of State, was fully competent to attend, there seemed little 
to call for the exercise of extraordinary talent, in directing 
the national affairs. Nothing could more clearly indicate the 
sense of public repose than the general tone of President 
Pierce's message, communicated to Congress, December 5th, 
1853. In it there was only a brief allusion, contained in a 
paragraph of a dozen lines, to " domestic controversies pass- 
ino- away," and an exhortation to respect the rights of States, 
and to maintain domestic peace. How soon this treacherous 
calm was to be succeeded by the wildest storm of incontrol- 



THE FmST GUN FIKED IK KANSAS. 271 

lable passion, the country eventually knew. Yet, for a con- 
siderable season, the tumult was confined to the immediate 
territory in which the outburst occurred, or to the contiguous 
States, without exciting any more than casual interest in the 
public mind at the North ; at least, outside of the then nar- 
row circle of abolitionists and specifically recognized Free- 
soilers. 

The civil Avar in the United States began, in fact, in Kan- 
sas. It has been the practice with many others, besides the 
Republicans, to refer to the firing of the first gun upon Fort 
Sumter as the commencement of hostilities. This may be a 
not inconvenient classification of events for those who desire 
to consign to oblivion the whole train of circumstances which 
certainly led to, however little they may be thought to have 
justified, that incident. It might be alleged with as much 
propriety, that the civil war between Charles I. and the Par- 
liament began with the battle of Edgehill ; though the one 
had mustered the cavaliers, under his " Commission of Ar- 
ray," and the other their train-bands by the " Ordinance of 
Militia," for months before that bloody encounter. Or that 
there was no battle, in fact, in order at Fontenoy, between 
French and English, until the commander of the Footguards 
and the ofllcer of the Gardes Fran^aises had politely settled, 
according to the popular story, which should first deliver 
their fire. The bombardment of Fort Sumter, doubtless, was 
the first act of the war which, at length, powerfully affected 
the Northern imagination ; since the incidents of the trans- 
action were peculiarly striking in themselves, and were easily 
appreciable by the popular mind ; and since general attention 
had for some time been especially directed to that point. 
Yet the "Star of the "West," the steamer previously de- 
spatched with provisions for the fort, had already been fired 
upon and compelled to turn back; South Carolina, Missis- 
sippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Lou,isiana, and Texas had 
already passed formal ordinances of secession ; the other 
States which eventually joined the Confederacy were evi- 
dently on the eve of that event ; and forts, arsenals, custom- 



272 ORIGIN OF TJIE LATE WAU. 

houses and otlier buildings of the United States had already- 
been seized and occupied by officers in the service of the se- 
ceding States.' 

The first gun of the war was doubtless fired in the terri- 
tory of Kansas ; the second in the " raid " of John Brown. 
It is true that no engagement took place in the territory, be- 
tween tlie troops of the United States and the insurgents in 
arms against its peace and authority on the one side and the 
other, whicS is really " the pity of it" — since, in that case, 
the existing disturbances would have been easily and speedily 
quelled. It was, nevertheless, an armed and most murderous 
conflict, fought out upon that ground, between the represent- 
atives of extreme sentiments at the N"orth and the South ; 
and a warfare the more brutal and demoralizing in all its in- 
fluences and results, tliat it was carried on by predatory and 
irresponsible bands of reckless and violent men, suj)plied with 
means of outrage, and prompted to deeds of blood, by those 
in both parts of the country who watched at a safe distance 
the progress of their resj)ective schemes. 

To go through with the history of the troubles ia Kansas 
in detail would demand a volume of many pages by itself; the 
subject, so treated, would be scarcely worth the pains re- 
quired ; the narrative, so complicated are the transactions, 
would not be very intelligible in the end. The only way of 
meeting this question for any useful purpose, is to simplify 
its relation, as much as possible, and to confine the statement 
to those general features which are of the most consequence, 
and which are sufficient for the elucJdation of the topic. 

Kansas was part of the " Louisiana purchase." It was, 
of course, included within the provisions of that Act of 
Congress, which, in admitting into the Union as a slave State, 
Missouri, also a part of the Louisiana purchase, excluded sla- 

' Mr. Choate observes, in one of his lectures : " You sometimes hear the 
Stamp Act spoken of as the first invasion of the rights of the colonists by the 
mother country. In truth, it was about the last ; the most flagrant, perhaps 
the most dreadful,and startUng to an Englishman's ideas of liberty ; but not 
the first — no, by a hundred and fifty years, not the first." 



SITUATION OF KANSAS. 2Y3 

very from all the rest of that vast territory which was situated 
north of the Compromise line of 36° 30' North latitude. In 
settling upon that line, it is obvious that the possible future 
of the country neither was, nor, perhaps, could have been 
taken into any very definite consideration ; in fact, that noth- 
ing was seriously regarded except the determination of a 
vexatious problem, at the time. The impracticability, under 
the circumstances, of extending that very line to the Pacific, 
long afterwards, tests this point ; and, in the eye of reason, 
the inevitable concession to that obstacle seems to have been, 
of itself, a virtual repeal of the provision. In a geographical 
point of view, nothing could be more incongruous with a well- 
defined principle than the Missouri Compromise. For a glance 
at the map shows, that, in forbidding slavery in an extensive 
tract of territory north of a certain fixed limit, it permitted 
the whole body of a Slave State to project itself into that ter- 
ritory, to a distance not far from three hundred miles north 
of the limit. There was, therefore, no continuous direct boun- 
dary between Slave States and Free States, but a line of zig- 
zag, without reference to natural laws ; and thus the settle- 
ment of the question at issue was made upon grounds entirely 
arbitrary. 

In fact, nothing having been agreed upon, but the mere 
abstract political point of extension or non-extension of sla- 
very, over an immense and unknown tract of territory, it would 
seem not unlikely, from the nature of the case, that future 
disputes might grow out of the subject. On the east, Kansas 
was bounded by the Slave State of Missouri ; on the south by 
slave territory, according to the provisions of the Missouri 
Compromise line ; on the west, by New Mexico and Utah, 
which were organized as territories in 1850, without restric- 
tion as to slavery ; and on the north, by Nebraska, coming 
under the general description of that part of the country 
where slave labor would be unprofitable and be certain to 
have no place. As a mere question of physics and economy, 
therefore, Kansas might have become eitRer a slave or a free 
state — upon its admission ; but the real question was, whether, 
12* 



274: OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

by the just interpretation of the Acts of 1850, the restriction 
of the Missouri Compromise was removed ; so that it would 
be at the option of the residents of Kansas to give it either 
the one or the other character. . . 

It is well known by some who had means of learning the 
opinions of Mr. "Webster and Mr. Choate, than whom there 
could be none higher legal authorities referred to, that they 
conceived the necessary effect of the measures of 1850 to be 
the repeal of the Compromise of 1820. In regard to the first 
named of those gi'eat men, his official position as Secretary of 
State, until his final illness, which terminated, in his death, 
October 24th, 1852, precluded him from the public expression 
of any opinion upon the subject. Tlie views of the other, Mr. 
Webster's intimate friend and associate, with whom, on public 
questions, he thought and acted in constant concurrence, may 
be clearly enough deduced from a striking passage of one 
of his speeches, delivered at the Baltimore Convention, in 
June, 1852. Referring to the "platform" proposed and sub- 
sequently adojoted, he remarked : 

" I believe, and have many times asserted and enforced the 
idea, that if the two great sectional parties would now, in this 
most solemn, public, authoritative manner, unite in extracting 
and excluding this business of the agitation of slavery from 
their political issues — if they would adjudge, decree, and pro- 
claim that this is all a capital ots which a patriotic man, 

OR BODT OF MEN", MAT NOT TRADE ; that the SubjCCt is OUt 

of the domain of politics, disposed of by the higher law of a 
common national consent, founded on a regard for the com- 
mon good — and that if they would go into the coming and all 
contests ujion their proj^er and strict political issues, each 
contending with the other only for the glory of a greater 
participation in the compromise^ much would be done to 
perpetuate the national peace within, which we now enjoy. 
Whatever the result of this canvass, and however severely it 
might be conducted, it would be one great jubilee of Union, 

' That is, the Compromise of 1850. 



LAW AND ANTI-LAW. 2Y5 

in which the discordant voices of sections and fanaticisms 
would be silenced or unheard." 

In short, it is well known by survivors of that day, that 
the platform itself was substantially drawn up by, and sub- 
mitted, in the whole, to the joint revision of Mr. "Webster 
and Mr. Choate ; and, especially, that final one of the reso- 
lutions adopted, which declares — 

" That the series of acts of the thirty-first Congress, the act known as 
the Fugitive Slave Law included, are received and acquiesced in by the Whig 
party of the United States as a settlement, in principle and substance, of the 
dangerous and exciting questions which they embrace." 

In fact, it may be stated, upon unquestionable authority, 
that the words in italics, in the above sentence, were inserted 
in the manuscript by Mr. Webster's own hand, at the sug- 
gestion of another eminent member of the party. At a sub- 
sequent period, it is also well known that the Supreme Court 
of the United States substantially decided — that the Missouri 
Compromise of 1820 was inoperative and void, before the 
passage of the Kansas-Xebraska Act of 1854. If opinions 
thus sanctioned were sound, held as they also were by mul- 
titudes of eminent men throughout the country, and adopted 
by the Convention of the Democratic party, assembled at 
Baltimore, in the same month of 1852, as they were by the 
Whig Convention — then, surely, it was a false issue which 
was presented to the country by those men, through whose 
agency the public mind was wrought up to such an unpre- 
cedented pitch of excitement on the question of Kansas. 

Indeed, the whole matter really resolves itself into this 
proposition : — ^that the antislavery faction in the North, led 
on by members of Congress from that quarter, by political 
and literary orators of every grade, and by the reverend 
clergy of most religious denominations, were determined that 
there should be no more slave territory — law or no law ; and 
that the Southern spirit, in general, was equally bent upon 
trying the question with their opponents — with reason, cer- 
tainly, to think that they had the law on their side. The 
former, without scruple, set themselves to work to defeat the 



276 OEiGEsr OF the late wak. 

action of the national legislature, and finally to nullify the 
decision of the supreme tribunal of the United States/ Had 
it been actually a question of morals, since the immorality, 
if any, would be that of our neighbors, it may be doubted 
whether it were justifiable, any more than expedient, on that 
account " to . disturb the foundations of the Government." 
But as a mere question of politics, and of temporary conse- 
quence — since the North really possessed the political jiower, 
jind that, too, constantly increasing, beyond any ratio which 
the South could expect ever to rival, it was a most needless 
quarrel. Yet this quarrel was incited and worked up into tlie 
fellest fury, in the end, by the efibrts of grave legislators in 
Congress, of multitudes of haranguers before popular assem- 
blies; by. a licentious partisan press, and by appeals from the 
pulpit itself^ — as if men's salvation depended upon keeping 
slavery out of the wilderness of Kansas ; and all the good 
which Providence had bestowed, or had in store for the na- 
tion, would be clean gone forever, if a fact were recognized 
on that distant border, which had called down no judgments 
for more than two centuries that slavery had existed in the 
land, and during the existence of which the national life had 
sprung and matured and been crowned with the choicest of 
heaven's blessings. And this quarrel, leading to such ter- 
rible results, in its progress and consummation, cannot but 
seem, uijon retrospection, as inexpedient, as, on the actual 
merits of the case, it was unfounded in reason, or could be 
warranted by any rational test of patriotism. For, surely, 
few will be unwilling to admit, that no such question was 
worth enough to risk for it the fearful and tremendous sacri- 
fices it has cost at last. 

' In a speech of Cromwell to his second parliament he told them : 
" And so many of these as arc peaceably, and honestly, and quietly dis- 
posed to live within the rules of government^, and will be subject to those 
Gospel rules of obeying magistrates and living under authority — I reckon no 
godUness without that circle ! Without that spirit, let it pretend what it will, 
it is diabolical, it is devilish, it is from diaboUcal spirits, from the depths of 
Satan's wickedness ! " 



VIEWS OF ME. WEBSTER AND ME. CLAY. 277 

There can be no room for misapprehension as to the mean- 
ing of the language inserted by Mr. Webster in the resolu- 
tions of the Whig Convention, already cited ; or ©f the intent 
with which those words were introduced. If the series of 
acts designated in that resolution were to be accepted as a 
settlement of the questions embraced by them, " in principle 
and in substance " — then, while, in substance, they compre- 
hended all that part of the Louisiana purchase which was 
admitted to territorial organization under them, without re- 
striction as to slavery, as in the case of Utah — in principle 
those acts were equally applicable to the remainder of the 
Louisiana purchase, of which Kansas also constituted a part. 
But, indeed, this whole matter must be considered as set defi- 
nitely at rest, so far as the intent is concerned, by the remarks 
of Mr. Clay, in introducing those resolutions upon which the 
Compromise of 1850 was founded. In answer to some objec- 
tions of Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, Mr. Clay replied : 

" And I say, sir, in my place, that I consider it mucli better for the South 
that the whole subject should he open on both sides of an imaginary line — for 
instance, the line of 36' 30' — than that slavery should be interdicted posi- 
tively north of 36° 30', with freedom to introduce or establish slavery south 
of that line, according to the wiU of the people." ^ 

If the matter had been left by the Democrats, as it clearly 
stood, upon this basis, without attempt to raise further ques- 
tions about it, there would have been no room for the argu- 
ment made by their Freesoil opponents, or opportunity for 
any considerable popular excitement. Kansas would then 
have been settled gradually, in correspondence with its gen- 
eral or special claims to the consideration of emigrants, who 
Avould have determined, eventually, according to their own 
convictions or intei-ests, whether slavery should or sJiould 
not be made a feature of its State Constitution. There were 
those in Congress, however, who chose to denounce the 
repeal, in terms, of a provision already repealed in fact, but 
which conveyed to many persons in the country the idea of a 



' Benton's "Abridgment of Debates," vol. xvi., 895. 



278 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

sacred obligation, and gave to those disposed to take advan- 
tage of the occasion the means of renewed and fierce agita- 
tion of the slavery question. 

This view of the subject receives the strongest confirma- 
tion from the earliest vote in the House of R.ej)resentatives, 
upon a bill providing a territorial government for Nebraska, 
under which name Kansas was also included, until the sub- 
sequent division of the territory into two parts. This bill 
was introduced by Mr. Richardson, of Illinois, and passed the 
House by a large majority on the 8th of February, 1853. Re- 
peated propositions had been made in Congress for the or- 
ganization of the territory during preceding years. Mr. 
Douglas remarked, on one occasion, that he had been eight 
years trying for the organization of the Territory, but no def- 
inite action had been taken. The bill of 1853 was silent on 
the subject of the Missouri Compromise, to the provision of 
which, in regard to slavery, that Territory would have been 
subject, of course, unless that measure were thought to have 
been repealed. Some slight colloquy took place as to this 
point, on the day of the passage of the bill, between a Whig 
member for Pennsylvania (Mr. Howe) and Mr. Giddings, of 
Ohio, a well-known abolitionist. The latter, it appears, was 
a member of the Committee on Territories, which reported 
the bill ; and the former inquired of him, " as pretending to 
be something of an antislavery man," in a style apparently 
rather jocose, and perhaps tauntingly — why " the Ordinance 
of 1787 was not incorporated in the proposed act;" and re- 
marked : " I should like to know if he or the committee were 
intimidated on account of the platforms of 1852." Mr. Gid- 
dings, on his part, referred him to the line of 36° 30', and 
read the section of the Act of 1820, which established a pro- 
hibition which, he alleged, was of perpetual force. The con- 
versation ended as follows : 

Mr. Howe. — I should like to know from the gentleman from Ohio if he haa 
not some recollection of a compromise made since that time. 
Mr. Giddings. — That does not affect the question. 



DIVERGENT OPINIONS. 279 

It seems evident enough that none of that acrimonious 
spirit, which afterwards prevailed in the House on this sub- 
ject, was exhibited on this occasion ; and, to all appearance, 
comparatively little actually existed. The result of the bal- 
lot showed the adoption of the bill by a vote of 98 to 43. 
The majority, in this instance, was made up indiscriminately 
of Democrats, Whigs, and Freesoilers. Of the first class 
was Mr. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee ; of the second, Mr. 
Clingman, of N'orth Carolina; of the third, Mr. Giddings, of 
Ohio. In the minority were Mr. Appleton, of Massachusetts, 
and Mr. Stanley, of North Carolina, both Whigs, in company 
with Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, and Mr. Orr, of South Carolina, 
both Democrats. Among those who voted yea, there were 
nineteen from slave States, and thirty from the same range 
of States who voted nay ; so that thirteen of the latter class 
were from the North, of whom, besides Mi\ Appleton, there 
was one Whig (Mr. Meacham) from Vermont. Of the eleven 
members from INIassachusetts but six voted at all, and the 
others may have been absent. Of those six, five gave an af-. 
firmative and one a negative vote. Indeed, the bill passed 
as the close of the session approached, and on the eve of the 
inauguration of a new administration ; and it excited but lit- 
tle interest, considering what fates hung upon its future dis- 
posal. But the analysis of the vote exhibits the very differ- 
ent views which were taken by members of the House from 
both sections, of the effect which the omission of reference to 
the Missouri Compromise might have in the application of 
the act to the Territory in question. 

In the Senate, on the 3d of March, that is on the last day 
of the legislative session, Mr. Douglas, from the Committee 
on Territories, reported back this House Bill without amend- 
ment. It is a pity that it was not at once carried through 
its stages ; but notwithstanding the lateness of the occasion, 
a somewhat animated debate took place. It is really re- 
freshing to read the remarks of the several Senators who en- 
gaged in this debate — among others, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Bell, 
of Tennessee, Mr. Houston and Mr. RusTc, of Texas — consid- 



280 , ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAS,. 

ering the turn it actually took. There is scarcely an allusion 
to the negro, throughout, or to any thing in which the negro 
was principally concerned ; indeed, nothing relating to the 
subject of slavery, in any point of view, except some not 
very well-timed and despondent observations of Mr. Atchi- 
son, of Missouri, in regard to the Compromise of 1820. The 
burden of the speeches, in opposition to hasty action on the 
bill proposed, related to the rights of the Indian tribes in the 
Territory ; to the danger and wrong of a forcible extinguish- 
ment of those titles by throwing open that Territory to the 
body of emigrants from the bordering States, who, it was 
said, were ready to move in and take possession, and who 
would soon push the Indians down upon the borders of Texas, 
and expose that thinly settled frontier to their merciless rav- 
ages.' It was upon these considerations alone that the bill 
was laid upon the table by a decisive majority ; and, of 
course, all consideration of the subject was at an end for that 
session." 

In the interval of the session of Congress, this subject pre- 
sented itself in a different aspect to the view of Mr. Douglas, 
who henceforth assumed the leading part in the discussions, 
protracted through several years, to which the question at 
issue, in its various features, gave rise. The discordant opin- 
ions, which the vote in the House had indicated, in regard to 
the effect of the measures of 1850 upon the Missouri Compro- 
mise, prompted him, doubtless, to bring this question forward 
for determination in a more definite shape. It is said that 
President Pierce strenuously remonstrated against the propo- 
sition which ]VIi'. Douglas designed to urge upon Congress, 

' In Nebraska and Kansas, and the " Indian Territory," so called, which 
ran along the southern border of the latter, there were at that time the nu- 
merous tribes of the Blackfeet Indians, the Mandans, Crows, Sioux, Omahas, 
Pawnee Loups, Grand Pawnees, Otoes, Kickapoos, Gros Ventres, Kansas, 
Delawares, Cheyennes, Quapaws, Senecas, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, and 
Choctaws, with some others. Texas was bounded, principally, on the north, 
by the " Indian Territory." 

^ See " Congressionable Globe " of March 3d, 1853. 



ME. Douglas's bill. 281 

on the ground of its impolicy ; but finally yielded to that 
Senator's assurance, that, in default of the measure, the fate 
of the Democratic party -^^as sealed. Accordingly, on the 4th 
of January, 1854, Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on Ter- 
ritories,' to which had been referred a bill introduced by a 
Senator from Iowa, to organize the Territory of Nebraska, re- 
ported it back with certain amendments, explained and en- 
forced by a formal report. The bill introduced by the Senator 
from Iowa was silent on the subject of slavery, in conformity 
with that which had passed the House of Representatives at the" 
preceding session. The report of Mr. Douglas j^roposed that 
'' the principles established by the compromise measures of 
1850, so far as they are applicable to territorial organizations, 
be afiirmed and carried into practical operation within the 
limits of the new Territory." From those principles he deduced 
the proposition that — 

All questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and 
in the new States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the 
decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate 
rej^resentatives, to be chosen by them for that purpose. 

In the substitute offered by him for the bill before the 
Senate, he accordingly proposed, that in creating a temporary 
government for Nebraska, it should be provided, that — 

" When admitted as a State or State?, the said Territory, or any portion 
of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as 
their Constitution may provide at the time of their admission." 

The question thus raised virtually was — whether the fu- 
ture condition of the proposed States, in respect to slavery, 
should be determined by the will of Congress, or according 
to the wishes of the people of the Territory. The latter alter- 
native popularly obtained the opprobrious epithet of " Squat- 
ter Sovereignty ;" as if it were a proposal to set up a terri- 

' This Committee on Territories in the Senate consisted of Mr. Douglas, of 
IlUnois ; Mr. Houston, of Texas ; Mr. Johnson, of Arkansas ; Mr. Bell, of Ten- 
nessee ; Mr. Jones, of Iowa ; and Mr. Everett, of Massachusetts. Mr. Everett 
and Mr. Houston were in the minority, opposed to the bill. 



282 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

torial authority against that of the United States; when, in 
fact, it only proposed, that the " sovereign people," within 
their own section and sphere, should regulate their own affairs 
according to their own pleasure, in nowise contraventing any 
constitutional provision. For the Constitution of the United 
States simply provides that " new States may be adinitted by 
Congress into the Union ;" and that " the United States shall 
guarantee to every State in this Union a re^^ublican form of 
government." In regard to the Ordinance of 1787, adopted 
-before the Constitution was established, there can be no 
doubt of its binding force ; whether judicious, on principle, 
or otherwise. 

But it seems very doubtful, to say the least, whether Con- 
gress, under these provisions of the Constitution, possessed 
any authority whatever to prescribe other terms of admission 
to a new State than the establishment of a republican form 
of government. The admission or the rejection of a State 
seeking entrance to the Union was at the option of Congress, 
according to the terras of the constitutional provision. It 
might properly and legally refuse admission to a State, there- 
fore, on fundamental grounds, if its domestic regulations, for 
example, were plainly contrary to good morals — which could 
not be alleged in regard to slavery, in a country composed 
of slave and free States, indiscriminately, under the consti- 
tution ; without taking the ground that the instrument adopted 
by our wise, humane, and religious fathers was " a covenant 
with death, an agreement with hell " — or, if those regulations 
were in any respect obviously unfriendly to republican insti- 
tittions. Otherwise, the authority, so exercised by Congress, 
would seem merely arbitrary, rather than conformable to 
reason and the just intent of the Constitution. 

In conformity with the principles of the report made by 
the majority of the Committee on Territories, Mr. Douglas 
offered his proposed amendment to the bill before the Senate, 
February 7th, 1854. This amendment, referring in express 
terms to the Missouri Compromise, proposed to insert in the 
bill the following declaration in regard to it : — 



DEBATE AND VOTE IN THE SENATE. 283 

" Which, being inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention by Con- 
gress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legisla- 
tion of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared 
inoperative and void ; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to 
legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom ; but 
to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States." 

This proijosition was identical in character with the Acts 
of 1850, for the organization of the Territories of New Mex- 
ico and Utah. An animated and continnons debate had 
already taken place in the Senate, npou propositions snbmit- 
ted by Mr. Dixon, of Kentucky, and by Mr. Donglas, to the 
same tenor, though not in the same terms as the preceding 
amendment ; and upon various counter-amendments, oifered 
upon the other side of the chamber. The debate proceeded 
upon the present form of the proposition, in which the 
mover, and Mr. Weller, of California, and others took 25art, 
in behalf of the measure, and Mr. Everett, Mr. Smith, of 
Connecticut, and Mr. Houston, in opposition. The two Sen- 
ators from New England contended against the bill, on the 
general Northern grounds of objection to the extension of 
slavery; Avliile Mr. Houston based his objection upon those 
already stated, as having been urged on the last day of the 
preceding session — that it violated the rights of the Indian 
tribes in possession of the Territory, and the good faith of 
the Government pledged to them when they removed to it, 
under the stipulations of treaty. Upon the conclusion of 
Mr. Houston's speech (February 15th), the amendment 
offered by Mr. Douglas was adopted by the following vote, 
in the statement of which Democrats are designated by 
italic letters : 

Yeas. — Messrs. Adams of Alississippi, Atchison of Missouri, Bayard of 
Delaware, Bell of Tennessee, Benjamin of Louisiana, Brown, of Mississippi, 
Butler of South Carolina, Cass of Michigan, Clayton of Delaware, Dawson of 
Georgia, Dixon of Kentucky, Dodge of Iowa, Dour/las of Illinois, Evans of 
South Carolina, Fitzpatrick of Alabama, Geyer of Missouri, Gwin of CaUfor- 
nia, Hunter of Virginia, Johnson of Arkansas, Jones of Iowa, Jones of Ten- 



284 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

nessee, Mason of Virginia, Morton of Florida, JVorris of New Hampshire, 
Pearce of Maryland, Pettii of Indiana, Pratt of Maryland, Sebastian of Ark- 
ansas, Slidell of Louisiana, Stuart of Michigan, Thompson of Kentucky, 
Toombs of Georgia, Wcller of Cahfornia, and Williams of New Hampshire 
—35. 

Nats. — Messrs. Allen of Rhode Island, Chase of Ohio, Dodge of Wis- 
consin, Everett of Massachusetts, Fish of New York, Foot of Vermont, 
Hoii^ton of Texas, Seward of New York, Sumner of Massachusetts, and Wade 
of Ohio— 10. 

The Senate, at that time, consisted of sixty-two mem- 
bers ; and seventeen, therefore, refrained from voting on this 
occasion ; or a certain number, it may be presumed, were 
absent from Washington, Of the twelve New England 
Senators, but six voted japon the amendment : though from 
other votes taken, in the course of the proceedings on the 
general question, and not long afterwards, all, with perhaps 
one exception, appear to have been upon the spot. 

The objections raised by Mr. Houston, and by others 
familiar with the special topic of his remarks, may appear, 
upon reflection, to have been far more woiiihy the attention 
of a rational and conscientious people than seems -to have 
been accorded to it. There were existing within the terri- 
tory of the United States, in 1853, and a very large propor- 
tion of them, certainly, in or near the quarter under discus- 
sion, more than 400,000 of the aboriginal race, according to 
the estimate of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.^ Not 
only the native title of this wild, yet not necessarily hostile 
people,^ to the soil of their fathers — but the rights of the 

^ The exact number stated is 400,764, more Ukely to be imderestimated, 
perhaps, than exaggerated ; and this statement was corrected in the ofEce of 
Indian Affairs, October 80th, 1856, for the " American Almanac," in the num- 
ber of which for 1857 it appears on page 109. If the estimate given in the 
"National Almanac " for 1863, page 312, as corrected at the Census Bureau, 
December 1, 1862, according to the census of 1860, be accurate, the Indian 
population in the States and Territories, retaining their tribal character, ex- 
cluding those enumerated in the census — a comparatively insignificant number 
— amounted to 294,431 ; showing a terrible diminution within about half a 
dozen years. 

'' Witness the peace in which the primitive settlers of New England 
lived with them for the first fifty years, and until they, too, wanted the land. 



mjIJSTICE TO THE INDIAN. 285 

feebler party, recognized and confirmed by solemn treaty 
obligations, were virtually disregarded on this occasion, as 
lias been only too generally the case in the history of the 
countiy. 

And it may raise a question in the minds of those who 
are actuated by rational principles of justice and humanity 
— if it cannot touch the sensibilities of the more selfish, who 
would emancij^ate the negro and "let him die out like the 
Indian " — whether it might not possibly be for this gratifica- 
tion of sordid motives, in the neglect of a duty so impera- 
tive ; for the commission of this great national iniquity, that 
a great national calamity has overtaken us. Whether it 
might not be for depriving the independent beings, who 
asked of us little else, of the poor yet free privilege to exist 
as their unconquerable nature prompted and requu-ed — rather 
than for maintaining the involuntary tutelage of a race 
totally dependent ixpon us and incapable of self-support or 
self-control — that we may have sufiered the punishment of 
our sins in civil war, with its unutterable ills and horrors, 
beginning on that very ground which was the actual scene 
of our wrong-doing towards the aboriginal inhabitants. In 
a word, without presuming to interpret the ways of Provi- 
dence — Avhether it may not have been for this enormous 
transgression against the laws of God and man, for which 
both sections are equally responsible, that we have been thus- 
lashed, in retribution, by the avenging scoiirge of the Al- 
mighty. 

From the date of the adoption of the amendment until 
the final passage of the bill, on March 3d, a continuous de- 
bate was maintained upon various mo'difications proposed to 
several of its features. Mr. Douglas, Mr. Cass, of Michigan, 
Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, and Mr, 
Butler, of South Carolina, were the chief speakers in favor 
of the measure; Mr, Seward, of New York, Mr. Chase, of 
Ohio, and Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, its principal oppo- 
nents. In the mean time, a memorial was presented to the 
Senate from the delegate in attendance upon Congress from 



286 OKiGEsr OF the late wak. 

Nebraska (Mr. Johnson), claiming the right for the people 
of that TeiTitory to legislate for themselves in regard to 
slavery, and urging Congress to leave this question to their 
own determination. On the other hand, Mr. Seward offered 
resolutions of the Legislature of New York, requesting the 
Senators and Representatives of that State to oppose the 
hill ; resolutions of the Legislature of Massachusetts, pro- 
testing against its passage, were also presented by Mr. 
Everett, and memorials flowed in of bodies of" citizens from 
a great many quarters in the Eastern, Middle, and Western 
States. Among others was one headed by Mrs. Beecher 
Stowe, and signed by eleven hundred other female states- 
men in the town of Andover, Massachusetts; reminding one 
of that violent period in French history, when the women 
of the fauxbourgs mingled with and aspired to lead the mob 
to the overthrow of the State. ^ 

It appears iipon examination of the votes in the Senate, 
at the several stages of the bill, that those in favor of its 
passage were 41, those opposed to it 17. Of the latter class 
were Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, and Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, 
both of whom had voted for the acceptance of the amend- 
ment proposed by Mr. Douglas, but changed their position 
when the final question was taken, for reasons not affecting 
the general merits of the case. On the 14th of March — that 
is, ten days after this action of the Senate, the measure being 
then under debate in the House, Mr, Everett presented to 
the Senate a memorial from cei'tain clergymen of New Eng- 
land. This document contained the signatures of no less 
than three thousand and fifty ministers of various religious 
denominations, protesting against the passage of the bill. 
About two months later, and shortly before the final disposi- 

^ Croly, in his " Life of George IV.," tells us of a period in the history of 
his own country, also, when — ■ 

" By an outrage to Enghsh decorum, which completed the likeness to 
France, women were beginning to mingle in public life, by their influence in 
party, and entangle their feebleness in the absurdities and abominations of 
political intrigue." 



THE CLEEGY m POLITICS. 287 

tion of the bill by the House, Mr. Douglas also presented a 
memorial in nearly identical terms, signed by the compara- 
tively insignificant number of tAventy-five clergymen in the 
Northwestern States. Some debate took place in regard to 
the memorial first mentioned, which was at length ordered 
to lie on the table. 

Here, then, w:as the first public step taken towards the 
inauguration of warfare in the professed cause of religion. 
For those worthy and reverend gentlemen, of whom proba- 
bly not one had the least accurate comprehension of the real 
merits of the question, not only pi*ejudged, but denounced 
as an act of absolute impiety, deliberate legislative proceed- 
ings, directed by many of the ablest men in the country, 
who were familiar with the topic in all its bearings ; who 
might be presumed to be guided by their best lights and by 
patriotic principles ; and whose particular business it was, in 
the proper conduct of public affairs, to determine the point 
at issue ; and that, too, in a mere matter of civil administra- 
tion, with which the Church had nothing whatever directly 
to do, unless the theory be maintained that it is, in. its cor- 
porate functions, a part of the government of the State. 
" Wandering Stars," ' therefore, they " shot madly from their 
spheres ; " and plunged, in person, into the disturbed vortex 
of political wrangle, in a spirit which could have no tendency 
to calm that troubled sea, but was sure to work it up into 
still wilder commotion, and to stir into the fiercest agitation 
whatever elements of quiet might otherwise yet have con- 
tributed to its composure. Upon the assumption of this 
stand by probably one-third part of the clergy of New Eng- 
land — excluding the ministers of the Episcopal Church, very 
few of whom took any part in it, and the priests of the 
Roman communion, none of whom so far forgot themselves 
— the topic became a natural source of division in the several 
congregations, composed of men and women holding oppo- 
site opinions upon this particular subject, and upon political 

' Jude, 13 



288 OEIGm OP THE LATE WAE. 

questions in general ; who had hitherto met in their places 
of worship, upon the one common ground of devotion be- 
fitting all men and incumbent upon all men, however diver- 
gent might be their views of political interests, or of worldly 
affairs. Nor was this stream of discord, flowing from an 
alien spring thus strangely mingling with the fountain of 
the sanctuary, allowed to take an ordinary course, and to 
pass out, exhausted, into the channels of the worldly 
current. 

This unusual action of the clergy excited extreme repug- 
nance in the minds of multitudes of sober and thoughtful 
persons throughout the whole country. On the one hand, 
it was considered a flagrant dereliction of the demeanor 
becoming their sacred profession, and a violation of its plain- 
est duties and obligations ; and, on the other, a combined 
and presumptuous attempt of a class of religious teachers to 
force upon the national legislature the ^ejection, in obedience 
to religious scruples, of an important measure, with which, 
whatever might be the political considerations affecting it, 
religion itself had no necessary concern. For whatever 
opinions we may entertain as moralists, philosophers, econo- 
mists, or politicians, in regard to negro-slavery and its exten- 
sion or non-extension, certainly no warrant of Scripture exists 
for making those opinions, either in one aspect or another, a 
specific article of religious faith. But the clergy, instead of 
conceiving that they might possibly have committed an 
error, in pi-inciple and in practice, braced themselves xip to a 
conflict with adverse opinions. Undoubtedly, they exhibited 
great zeal. They preached upon Kansas and prayed about 
it. In many instances, this topic appeared to absorb their 
whole souls. Unanimity of feeling in respect to Kansas 
seemed to reduce to comparative insignificance old differences 
of doctrine and sentiment which regarded heaven and hell. 
Time struggled with Eternity. Men, between whom there 
was no single point of religious agreement, agreed in this, 
that the organization of the Territories of Nebraska and 
Kansas, without a prohibition of slavery, would be, in the 



THE AUTHORITY OF THE CLERGY. 289 

language of the clerical memorial, " a measure exposing us to 
tlie righteous judgments of the Almighty." 

In this also agreed with them multitudes of the fanatical 
crowd who had got quite beyond the sphere of religion or of 
reason, who made no pretence to Christian faith, or to belief 
in any thing but themselves. The Minister of the Plymouth 
Church, in Brooklyn, shook hands with the minister of the 
28th Congregational Society in Boston. The professed 
orthodox divine held forth in the pulpit of one who was in 
communion with no religious denomination ; and in a strain 
not less edifying than that to which the assembly in question 
was accustomed. Mr. Henry Ward Beecher, who preached 
in his own pulpit upon " Sharpe's rifles," in their relation to 
the afiuirs of Kansas, discoursed to the flock of Mr. Theodore 
Parker, who preached up " a drum-head constitution " as the 
only one worth regarding, in the same relation. In a word, 
there was a general jumble of opinions, feelings, and convic- 
tions at the J^orth, which the action of the clergy tended 
most actively to promote and foster, and Avhich boded no 
good either to Church or State. 

The question naturally arises — By what well-authenti- 
cated mission did these reverend gentlemen assume the 
authority of Heaven ? On what supereminent pinnacle of 
delegated power did they stand to wield the thunderbolts 
of the Almighty, and deal damnation round the land ? Or, 
if their mission were not clear — if their authority Avere less 
than divine — then it was but sheer presumption and Heaven- 
daring presumption to assume the ofiice of inspiration, and, 
beyond the rights or pretensions of other men, to arrogate, 
for their occasions, the solemn denunciations of prophecy. 
From the beginning of recorded time, undef the dispensa- 
tion of an all-wise and all-beneficent Providence, that subjec- 
tion of classes of men to their fellows, which passes under 
the general name of bondage, had been one of the condi- 
tions, happy or unhappy, of human existence. If those 
three thousand and fifty clergymen, who thus undertook to 
minister wrath, and announce judgment, placed implicit con- 
13 



290 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

fidence in the prophetic declarations of Holy Writ, they must 
have believed that up to the day of doom itself, the ques- 
tion of slavery would still remain in abeyance, under the dis- 
pensation of an all-wise and all-beneficent Providence,' 

The kingdoms of the world had waxed and waned ; the 
chosen people of God had endm-ed their oavb bondage of four 
hundred years, had been led to the promised land, had ful- 
filled their appointed time, and had been scattered among the 
nations of the earth. To this land of ours, so long hidden 
from the light of His countenance — if civilization and the 
blessings of civilization are marks of His favor — had come 
our fathers, in the procession of ages ; had sufiered the • dis- 
cipline of His hand ; had built up their republic on its foun- 
dations of liberty and peace — liberty to such as could rightly 
use it, peace with all and every nation and amongst them- 
selves — and it had grown prosperous and great. In each and 
all of these stages of the progress of mankind — whether at 
the height of glory, or amid the emblems of desolation — a 
state of " involuntary servitude," when under circumstances 
not obviously unfavorable to its existence and continuance, 
had been a distinguishing characteristic of human society. 
This condition of things had actvially existed in the United 
States. Its -continuance had not seemed inconsistent either 
with the civil advancement or the material prosperity of the 
republic. To allege, therefore, that the liberty to introduce 
or to exclude it, according to the will of the people, in a ter- 
ritorial wilderness — where the eventual development of the 
system would be at least problematical, must call down spe- 
cial and direct judgments from on high — was an assertion 
contradictory alike of the suggetstions of reason and the ob- 
servations of ^perience. 

The immediate effect of this ecclesiastical interj^osition in 
a question of merely political import was disastrous in the 
extreme, throughout the free States. It lessened the respect 
accorded to the clerical profession personally, as a body of 

' "And every bondman and every freeman." — Rev. vi. 15. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF KANSAS. 291 

men set aj^avt to minister in divine things ; it reduced their 
influence in matters of faith and practice, hj promoting heat- 
ed discussions in their churches and congregations ; it lowered 
the general standard of religious sentiment and feeling. It 
could not take away their faith from those who held it in sin- 
cerity and truth ; hut it may he safely stated that the intro- 
duction of this subject into the pulpits of the North, while in 
many places it comj^letely desolated and broke up the ordi- 
nary seats of Christian communion, it induced hundreds of 
thousands, throughout the free States, to absent themselves 
altogether from their accustomed places of worship ; or to 
join religious societies, Avhere j)olitical discussions were not 
likely to be substituted for the tidings of the Gospel — to en- 
courage embitterment of heart, instead of working out the 
salvation of souls. 

Upon the introduction of the bill into the House, an ani- 
mated debate arose, which was continued, with brief inter- 
mission, from January 21st to May 22d, 1854. On the latter 
day, the first vote was taken. In the mean time, resolutions 
of the legislative assemblies of various Northern States, 
against the passage of the bill, had been presented, and from 
the legislative bodies of Southern States in its favor ; and 
during the progress of the measure in the House a continual 
fire of memorials, signed by large numbers of citizens in all 
quai'ters of the country, had been kept up. It was finally 
agreed to, in the popular branch of Congress, by a vote of 
113 yeas to 100 nays. In the majority were forty-five North- 
ern Democrats ; in the minority four Southern Whigs. 

The act now passed, it will be remembered, was simply 
for the organization of a territorial government for Kansas. 
Another act of the same character was passed in relation to 
Nebraska, the original Territory having been divided into two, 
in the progress of the foregoing transactions. In the latter 
Territory no difficulty whatever occurred ; indeed, its geo- 
graphical situation was such as to ofier no temptation for the 
extraordinary efibrts which led to the violent proceedings of 
which Kansas so soon became the notorious and deplorable 



292 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

scene. But Kansas itself, bounded on the north by Nebraska, 
and on the south by the Indian Territory and New Mexico, 
was hemmed in between the latter and Utah, on the west ; 
both left free by law to choose for themselves in regard to sla- 
very. Its entire eastern border was covered by the slave State 
of Missouri, and the territory afforded peculiarly advantageous 
inducements to emigration. Without entering upon details 
too minute, the general course of events which followed may 
be made sufficiently intelligible ; though seldom has a public 
question been presented so full of complications and per- 
plexities. The reader ought to be duly grateful to one who 
has waded and struggled through this difficult abyss of un- 
certainties and contradictions, and has brought out of it only 
essential products of the exploration. 

The joeople of the North, or rather of the Northeast, are 
of an eminently practical turn of mind ; and hence, when 
they have any object of apparent interest to effect, they set 
themselves to work to discover the mechanical means of 
bringing it into successful operation. Owing to habit, also, 
and to the fact that they are commonly much engaged in the 
pursuit of their own private occupations, they are very much 
governed, in regard to public matters, by the powerful influ- 
ence of organizations. These are generally directed by per- 
sons of more leisure than common — either professional politi- 
cians or others, who are willing to devote special attention 
to the subject, and perhaps feel for it a peculiar interest. 
Hence it often happens that very many, through the force of 
such a system, vote at the day of electioa on the side of a 
party, when they have veiy little sympathy with its policy 
and no respect for its reputed conductors. Already, however, 
a difterent organization, of vast extent and power in its com- 
prehensive ramification — that of the Northern Protestant 
Churches — had indicated the course which it proposed to take 
upon this question. If the settlement of Kansas, therefore, 
was to be made a point of religious principle, it was obvious 
that here was the mightiest of all influences set in operation, 
to act under the combined impulse of conviction, sentiment, 



EMIGKANT AID SOCIETIES. 293 

and too often passion. The organization of the churches, so 
salutary and indispensable when rightfully exerted, was one 
intimately and in all the relations of life, every moment aftect- 
ing all classes and conditions of the people. 

But now came up another of a different description, also 
sliowing clearly with what a determined purpose the ques- 
tion at stake was to be pushed to extreme issues. A month 
before the passage of the bill by the Congressional House of 
Representatives, the Legislature of Massachusetts had already 
granted an act of incorporation to a number of individuals, 
under the title of " The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany," in particular reference to the expected event. This 
company was clothed, by the act, with the usual powers and 
privileges of incorporated companies under tbe general laws 
of the State. The act set forth that the association was 
formed " for the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in 
the West." It was provided that its capital should "not 
exceed five millions of dollars " — an amount which may be 
thought to indicate objects in contemplation somewhat more 
extended than such casual aid as might be needed by, and 
which it was thus proposed benevolently to aiFord, to casual 
voluntary emigrants to a remote wilderness, as yet chiefly 
the habitation of savages and wild beasts. Among the 
twenty corporators named were, in fact, some of the most 
conspicuous Freesoilers and imcompromising abolitionists in 
the State. This act was approved April 26, 1854.' Consid- 
ering that the sphere of operations was to be a territory some 
fifteen hundred or sixteen hundred' miles beyond the jurisdic- 
tion of Massachusetts, in which its statutes could have no 
legal force, this extraordinary enactment may be pronounced, 
at least, a very questionable piece of legislation, Nor could 
such a projiosition have obtained any respectable countenance 

' In the following year (February 21, 1855), a charter was granted to an- 
other association, the " New England Emigrant Aid Company," incorporated 
"for the purpose of directing emigration westward;" with a capital "not to 
exceed one million of dollars." 



294 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAK, 

in Massachusetts, bad the State continued under the better 
influences of its more sober days. Its real object could not 
be for a moment misunderstood. 

Of the naked right of citizens to form associations and to 
provide means to encourage emigration to one part of the 
country or another, there can be no doubt. But of the moral 
right to force emigration into a territory, in which a very 
grave political question was already rife ; affecting seriously 
and directly the rights, real or suppos.ed, of the actual i-esi- 
dents of that Ten-itory and of its immediate neighborhood ; 
a question sure to be hotly contested, -and only too likely to 
lead to violence and bloodshed in its progress, if occasion 
should arise — a very different view may be reasonably enter- 
tained. The act just referred to is worthy of notice, in this 
connection, as the first example set of a systematic and organ- 
ized undertaking to exercise political control over the affairs 
of the Territory ; of which so many instances of every de- 
scription and evil tendency occurred in the course of the long- 
protracted and violent struggle which ensued. At the ses- 
sion of the Legislature of Connecticut, beginning in May, 
1854, a similar act of incorporation was granted to the same 
Massachusetts gentlemen, iinder the title of the " Emigrant 
Aid Company," " for the purpose of assisting emigrants to 
settle in any of tlie Western Territories or States, with all 
the necessary powers and privileges." The capital of the 
company, in this case, was also limited to five millions of 
dollars. On a subsequent day of the same session this act 
was amended, by adding to the corjoorators named a certain 
number of associates belonging to the State which had 
granted the act, and others who Avere citizens of the State of 
New York. 

But, perhajos, the most interesting exemplification of this 
extraordinary movement developed itself at the seat of the 
General Government. It appears, by testimony given before 
the " Kansas Investigating Committee " of Congress, in the 
year 1856, that, immediately after the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act, in May, 1854, an association of Senators ai^.d 



A SECKET ASSOCIATION IN CONGRESS. 295 

Representatives in Congress was formed, nncler the name of 
the " Kansas Aid Society." The object of the assf)ciation is 
stated below. It appears by the evidence given, that head- 
quarters for the Society were established in Washington, that 
officers were appointed, books kept, and subscriptions raised. 
The following passages arc extracts from the testimony of 
Mr. Mace, member of the House from Indiana, who was one 
of the association : 

" We issued a circular to the people of the country, of the Northern States 
particularly, in which we set forth what we believed were the dangers of mak- 
ing Kansas a slave State, and urged that steps be taken to induce persons from 
the North who were opposed to slavery to go there and prevent its introduc- 
tion, if possible. We sent a great many circulars to various parts of the 
United States, with that -object, and also communications of various kinds. 

" I think no other object was mentioned or specified, except the pre- 
vention of slavery in Kansas. I think that was the sole object of the 
movement. 

" My recollection is, that generally those members of the House and Senate 
who were opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act became members of this so- 
ciety and contributed to it. 

" I think Mr. Goodrich, of Massachusetts, was President of the society. I 
am not sure about the vice-Presidents ; probably Mr. Fenton, of New York, 
and myself were vice-Presidents. The names of the President and vice- 
Presidents were attached to our circulars which we sent throughout the 
country." ' 

It must be admitted that here was a pretty formidable 
outside organization, on the part of Church and State, set 
instantly into active operation to stir up the public mind, 
in order to prevent the actual settlers of Kansas, already 
there resident under a territorial government established by 
law, from having a free choice in regard to the alternative 
of slavery or no slavery, as provided by the act. It does 
not appear that there was any counter-demonstration, on the 

' This association is stated to have been a secret one in the report from 
the Committee on Territories, presented in the Senate by Mr. Green, of Mis- 
souri, and also that it was formed "prior to the final passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill." Surely, this underhand way of working out their objects could 
hardly have been expected of men assuming to be statesmen in the Govern- 
ment of a free people. 



296 OKiGEsr OF the late war. 

proslavery side, for many months ; except that considerahle 
bodies of»settlers entered upon the Territory, from the con- 
tiguous state of Missouri, and took up their locations, many 
of them accompanied hy theu- slaves. This they were per- 
fectly free to do, in common with citizens from every other 
part of the country. But although no controversy could 
exist as to the legal right of voluntary action, in this respect, 
on the part of emigrants from whatsoever remote quarter, or 
in whatever numbers ; the moral right of those at a distance 
to institute organized and systematic efforts, in order to pro- 
duce a predetermined result, against the well-known wishes, 
during the early period of the controversy, of most of those 
on the spot, or in the immediate neighborhood, is more prob- 
lematical.' At the first election imder the territorial laws, 
held on the 29th of November, 1854, a delegate to Congress 
was chosen, according to the report of the majority of the 
Committee on Territories furnished to the Senate, made on 
the 12th of March, 1856 : 

" By the votes of men of all parties who were in favor of the principles 
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and opposed to placing the destinies of the Ter- 

^ It is of importance here, in illustration of the opinions of the residents 
of Kansas, at so late a period in the controversy as May, 1857, to quote a 
passage from the inaugural Address of Mr. Eobert J. Walker, as one of the 
successive Governors of the Territory. He says : 

" Those who oppose slavery in Kansas do not base their opposition upon 
any philanthropic principles, or any sympathy for the African race. For, in 
their so-caUed Constitution, framed at Topeka, they deem that entire race so 
inferior and degraded, as to exclude them all forever from Kansas, whether 
they be bond or free. * * * Yet such a clause in the Topeka Constitu- 
tion was submitted by that convention for the vote of the people, and ratified 
here by an overwhelming majority of the antislavery party. The party here, 
therefore, has afiBrmed the constitutionality of that portion of the recent de- 
cision of the Supreme Court of the United States, declaring that Africans are 
not citizens of the United States." 

For, if citizens, they could not be lawfully excluded. Governor Walker 
proceeds to state the fact that this Topeka Constitution, with the clause in 
question, was also ratified by the entire Republican party in Congress. It 
seems plain, therefore, that the dispute was political merely, not philanthrop- 
ical, or moral, or rehgious, in its essence. 



CEETAm OFFICIAL KEP0KT8 NOT INGENUOUS. 297 

ritory in the keeping of the abolition party of the Northern States, to be man- 
aged through the machinery of their emigrant aid companies. No sooner 
was the result of the election known, than the defeated party proclaimed, 
throughout the length and breadth of the republic, that it had been produced 
by the invasion of the Territory by a Missouri mob, which had overawed and 
outnumbered and outvoted the bona fide settlers of the Territory." 

The report throws entire discredit upon the latter state- 
ment ; and by way of showing how little the statement was 
entitled to belief, declares the fact that the seat of the dele- 
gate so chosen was never contested. It then proceeds : 

" In the absence of all proof and probable truth, the charge that the Mis- 
sourians had invaded the Territory and controlled the Congressional election 
by fraud and violence, was circulated throughout the free States and made 
the basis of the most inflammatory appeals to all men opposed to the princi- 
ples of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to emigrate or send emigrants to Kansas, for 
the purpose of repelling the invaders, and assisting their friends who were then 
in the Territory in putting down the slave pov/er, and prohibiting slavery in 
Kansas, with the view of making it a free State. Exaggerated accounts of the 
large number of emigrants on their way, under the auspices of the emigrant 
aid companies, with the view of controlling the election for members of the 
territorial legislature, which was to take place on the 30th March, 1855, were 
pubUshed and circulated. These accounts being republished and believed in 
Missouri, where the excitement had already been inflamed to a fearful inten- 
sity, induced a corresponding effort to send at least an equal number to coun- 
teract the apprehended result of the new importation." 

It is a little surprising, that amid the multiplicity of re- 
ports which were made on this whole subject to Congress 
during the four or five years of the controversy, those made 
to the Senate by the minority of the Committee on Terri- 
tories seem to slip rather quietly over these preliminary 
matters, whenca obviously were the beginnings of evil. 
They defer their recapitulation of events, which finally led 
to armed encounters of considerable bodies of men, in the 
uuliappy Territory, and to many dee'ds of individual murder 
and outrage, to a period nearly a year after the passage of 
the act for the organization of Kansas, namely : the 30th of 
March, 1855, the day ordered for the election of a legisla- 
tive assembly.' It is alleged, by those reports of the minor- 

' The territorial bill passed the House May 22d, 1854. 

13* 



298 • ORIGIN or THE LATE WAR. 

ity of the Committee, and no doubt truly, that bands of 
armed men from Missouri appeared at the polls, and that the 
election, in the main, was carried by fraud and threatened 
violence. It has been already stated, in correspondence with 
the report of the majority of the Committee, that, soon after 
the passage of the bill, large numbers of emigrants entered 
upon the territory from Missouri for permanent residence, 
many taking their slaves with them. The folio Aving passage 
is an extract from a report by Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, in 
the minority of the Senate Committee on Territories, made 
March 12th, 1856 : 

" After the passage of this law, establishing the Territory of Kansas, a 
large body of settlei's rapidly entered into said Teriitory, with a view to per- 
manent habitancy therein. Most of these were from the free States of the 
West and North, vi\\o probably intended by their votes and influence to estab- 
lish there a free State, agreeably to the law which invited them. Some part 
of those from the Northern States had been encouraged and aided in this 
enterprise by the Emigrant Aid Society formed in Massachusetts, which put 
forth some exertions in this laudable object by open and public measures," 
etc. 

Neither in this minority report, nor in a subsequent one, 
signed by Mr. Collamer, and by Mr. Wade, Senator from 
Ohio, made on the 4th of September, 1857, is there mention 
of unlawful interference with the i^roceedings of election 
prior to that ordered for March 30tb, 1855. The inference 
from the facts already exhibited, therefore, would certainly 
seem inevitable, that — since matters appear to have gone 
forward, during nearly a year after the establishment of the 
territorial government, attended with no noticeable disorder 
— if emigration had been afterwards left, in any reasonable 
degree, to follow its natural impulse, without the application 
of an extraordinary forcing process, no serious trouble would 
3ver have occurred in the Territory. It is very likely that 
Kansas might thus have become temporarily a slave State ; 
but little probability that it would long have continued in 
that condition, after the develoijment of its resources had 
fairly begun, and its population had become numerous by 
accessions from the free States, which liad already contrib- 



CONFUSION IN KANSAS. 299 

Tited so much more largely than was in the power of the 
slave States to the settlement of the whole West. Slavery- 
was clymg out hi Missouri, on its border, and beyond Kansas 
it could have no fixed existence. The fanatics, ideologists, 
and radical enthusiasts, who insisted upon " the largest liber- 
ty " to cut all the cords which bind communities together in 
civil and social relations, might have gone on dreaming, or 
bewailing the hard lot of tlie happy negro, forever ; in due 
process of time, all the territory of the United States might 
have been converted from a wilderness into a garden, by the 
ajjplication of just such labor as the natural condition of the 
several portions required ; and whenever it was found that 
slavery was not useful to the master and the slave — for their 
interest, though in ditferent degrees, was common and in- 
separable — it would at length have ceased altogether. 

But when did reason restrain the fiery proj^agaudist, to 
wait for the slow operation of natural or moral causes ? Here, 
however, had come finally up a new and efticient jiower, in 
which party interests, sectional hostility, ferocious Christianity, 
radical infidelity, and the most extravagant theories of personal 
equality and fraternity, had combined for the accomplishment 
of a political object. The history of Kansas, from the time that 
this complicated and portentous machinery was set in mo- 
tion until greater events, deducing their origin from its con- 
flicts and troubles, engrossed the public mind, presents a 
sjiectacle only too j^ainful to look back upon. Indeed, it is 
much more painful in the retrosjject, than were the emotions 
excited by the actual progress of events at the time ; since 
the whole scope and tendency of those events could not then 
be discerned, though regarded by thoughtful men as in the 
highest degree dangerous to the peace and welfare of the 
republic. To the great mass of the people the struggle 
seemed, however lamentable in its incidents, yet on the 
whole a local conflict, which would in the end wear itself 
out ; and the condition of parties at the North was not such 
as to excite immediate apprehensions of a civil convulsion iu 
which the whole country would be involved. 



300 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

The systematic efforts of bodies of men in the North to 
control the future fortunes of the Territory, of course begot 
similar organizations in the South, and the struggle was long 
and arduous between the two. Avoiding all recapitulation 
of events so recent, the narration of which would be neces- 
sarily voluminous, jDcrhaps perj^lexing to those not familiar 
with them, and needless to those Avho are, it may be said 
that for a series of years the coiltroversy raged with unexam- 
pled vigor and acrimony, in the Territorj^, in Congress, and 
in the country. Kansas, in fact, was in a state of civil war,^ 
which broke out in various disturbances at first, upon every 
occasion of an election or public assembly of the inhabitants, 
and at length terminated in serious* conflicts of large bodies 
of the different parties in arms, until a sufficient body of 
troops of the United States was moved into the Territory to 
keep the peace. ^ It became finally manifest that the oppo- 
nents of slavery in the Territory had acquired a decided su- 
periority in numbers OA'er their adversaries, and the struggle 
then came to an end upon that particular field of action. 

It is no part of the purpose of the present inquiry to in- 
stitute an examination of the successive administrations of 
President Pierce and President Buchanan, during which 
those unhappy troubles had their origin, and. led, in their 
progress, to other more important events ; but simply to 
trace, in some efibrt at a philosophical spirit, those causes 
from which finally sprang ji civil war which astounded the 
nations of tlie earth by the unparalleled character of its 

' The following passages are extracts from the resolutions of the Whig 
National Convention, assembled at Baltimore in the summer of 1856, of which 
Edward Bates, of Missouri, was the President ; 

Resolved, That we regard with the deepest mterest and anxiety the present 
disordered condition of our national affairs, a portion of the country ravaged 
by civil war, large sections of our population embittered by mutual recrimina- 
tions, etc. 

Resolved, That, in the present exigency of political affairs, we are not 
called upon to discuss the subordmate questions of the administration in the 
exercising of the constitutional powers of the Government. It is enough to 
know that civil war is raging and that the Union is in peril, etc. 



CAUSE OF THE DEMOCRATIC DIVISION. 301 

manifestations, and is so replete with consequences yet to be 
developed, to the country and to mankind. It should be re- 
marked here, however, that it was in the progress of this 
Kansas controversy that Mr. Douglas, the original mover 
and most efficient promoter of the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, became. separated from his party, in opposition 
to the views of Mr. Buchanan, as expressed in his Message 
to Congress of February 2d, 1858. Mr. Douglas's rej^ort to 
the Senate sharply criticized that Message?; and the stand 
subsequently taken by him against the bill adopted by Con- 
gress for the admission of Kansas,' led to the defeat of his 
own prospects for the Presidency, through the dissatisfaction 
it gave to a lai-ge section of his party both in the North and 
South. Hence resulted the fatal division in the Democratic 
Convention at Charleston, in 1860, and at the adjournment 
to Baltimore, which ended in the overthrow of the Demo- 
crats and the triumph of the sectionalists of the North. ^ The 
debate ou Kansas and its affairs continued in Congress, at 
intervals, until April, 1858 — a period of four years from the 
passage of the act for the organization of the Territory, In 
the mean time, other questions than those relating to slavery, 
in respect to lands and other public property, had sprung up 
and led to controversy with the General Govei'nment. A 
variety of constitutions, proposed by conventions of " free- 
state men " and " slave-state men," on the One hand and the 
other, esijecially the " Topeka " constitution by the former, 
and the " Lecompton " by the latter, had been subjected to 
the 2>opular determination of voters and non-voters, without 
much deference to law, or regular action, on either hand. 
These had been submitted to Congress, but found no favor 
with the majority, and at length the whole subject was re- 
ferred to a committee of conference of both branches. 

' That is, the bill described on p. 248. 

- At the election which ensued, the Republicans cast 1,867,610 votes for 
Mr. Lincoln, that being a plurality of votes oier any other individual candi- 
date ; though the whole opposing vote in the aggregate was 2,804,566 — leav- 
ing him in an actual minority of 946,960 votes. 



302 OKIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

This committee reported a bill which passed the two 
Houses. It submitted to the decision of the inhabitants a 
certain proposition, in regard to tlie distribution of the public 
property, for public uses in the State, reserving the rights of 
the United States. It provided, that, upon the acceptance 
of that proposition by the people of Kansas, "in lieu of the 
ordinance framed at Lecompton " — which was the constitu- 
tion then actually before ^Congress, and was pronounced 
" not acceptable " to it — the territory should he, ipso facto ^ 
"admitted into the Union, on an equal footing with the 
original States, in all respects w^hatever." This branch of 
the act said nothing about slavery, Avhich was sufficiently 
provided for by the ordinance in question ; so that tlie effect 
would be, upon the declared assent of the people to the fore- 
going proposition, the adoption of the " ordinance framed at 
Lecompton," for their constitution ; with the substitution of 
the proposition of Congress for that contained in the ordi- 
nance, in regard to the public property. 

A further section of the act provided, however, that if 
the proposition in question should be rejected by the popular 
votes, then — 

" It should be deemed and held that the people of Kansas do not desire 
admission into the Union with the said Constitution/ under the conditions set 
forth in said proposition ; and in that event the people of said Territory are 
hereby authorized and empowered to form for themselves a constitution and 
State government, by the name of the State of Kansas, whenever the popula- 
tion of said Territory equals or exceeds the ratio of representation required 
for a member of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United 
States, * * * and shall be entitled to admission into the Union as a State, 
under such Constitution thus fairly and legally made, with or without slavery, 
as such Constitution may prescribe." 

In short, the first clause of the act provided for the ad- 
mission of Kansas as a 'slave State ; the second for the refer- 
ence of the question of slavery to the will of the people, 
according to the original proposal of Mr, Douglas ; but the 
whole question, in eitligr event, was, in fact, referred to the 

' That is, " the Ordinance passed at Lecompton." 



A LETTEK OF JEFFEESON DAVIS. 303 

popular determination. This bill passed tlie Senate by a 
vote of ^1 yeas to 22 nays ; and the House by a vote of 112 
yeas to 103 nays. In the Senate nine of the majority were 
from the free States ; in the House thirty-six. 

The only question really determined by the final result, 
Avas, that a new State might be admitted into the Union, 
either with slavery or without it, as the people of the terri:. 
tory asking admission might prefer. But, upon incidental 
points, provided for by the act, and in regard to the manner 
in which the question was presented by it, it may be justly 
thought liable to the gravest objections, both as a matter of 
statesman sliip and upon principles of ingenuous dealing. The 
passage of the act gave rise to the most discordant opinions, 
in the North and the South. Mr. Douglas had opposed it, 
because he considered its effect to be to force the Lecompton 
constitution upon the people of Kansas, by inducements held 
out in the "proposition," and the postponement of admis- 
sion, should the "proposition" be rejected. Mr. Robert J. 
Walker, who had been Governor of the Territory, was in favor 
of it, because he felt confident it would insure the defeat of 
that constitution. Mr, Jefferson Davis wrote to a friend in 
Mississippi, in a letter dated at Wasliington, May 12th, 1858 : 

" My judgment is in favor of the latter (the act), because it distinctly re- 
serves the rights of the United States, and does not attempt to construe, or 
seemingly to suggest any modification of the Constitution, oi" to offer any 
justification for having admitted the State; but leaves it to stand as a sim- 
ple recognition of the right of the people — they having formed a Constitution 
republican in its character — to be admitted into the Union. * * * Its 
passage was then and is now regarded by me as the triumph of all for which 
we have contended ; and the success of a great constitutional principle, the 
recognition of which, though it should bear no present fruit to be gathered by 
the South, was an object worthy of a struggle, and may redound to our fu- 
ture advantage. By the same means, the country was relieved from an issue 
which, had it been presented as threatened, our lienor, our safety, our respect 
for our ancestors, and our regard for our posteyty, would have required the 
South to meet, at whatever hazard." ' 

' Quoted in Cluskey's " Political Text-Book," p. '746. 



304 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

On the other hand, Mr. W. L. Yancey, of Alabama, in a 
letter elated May 24th, 1858, says : 

" Far better had the issue been met. The South had done its duty in using 
all its exertions to bring Kansas into the Union, ' in accordance with the prin- 
ciples of the Constitution.' She did it, knowing that the new State would be 
represented by Freesoil Senators and Representatives. She had nobly per- 
formed her duty without counting the cost. Why should she have hazarded 
her own unity, and compromised her position by further effort ? « * * 
General Davis may be right ; but the fact is, that the North laughs at us, 
and we stand not exactly a scorn unto ourselves, but certaialy without any 
cause of congratulation at the result." ^ 

At an election, held in the month of August, 1858, the 
people of Kansas rejected the " proposition " by a decisive ma- 
jority. In January, 1859, the territorial legislatui'e passed 
an act, submitting to the people the question of holding 
another constitutional convention, to which, upon taking the 
vote, it appears that they agreed. The convention met in 
July, 1859, and framed a constitution, which subsequently 
obtained the ratification of the popular vote, by a majority 
of about four thousand.* Kansas, however, was not admitted 
as a State, until January 29th, 1861, after the Republican 
party had carried the election of President, and upon the 
very eve of war. Very earnest and protracted debates even 
then took place upon the subject, in Congress ; so that this 
profoundly exciting question actually remained open until 
the rebellion was fully in progress, when many Sotithern mem- 
bers of Congress had already left, and others were just about 
to leave their seats vacant. 

The admission, of course, was entirely right, and in entire 
correspondence with the alternative provision of the act of 
1858. But, upon looking over the records of congressional 

' Quoted in Cluskey's "Political Text-Book," p. V61. 

■■^ In Mr. Douglas's report, from the Committee on Territories, in February, 
1858, it is stated that there were not 500 white inhabitants in the whole 
Territory in May, 1854, when the bill for organizing it passed. In 1859 there 
were not far from 100,000. It appears, from census returns made in 18G0, 
that there were then 109,000. 



AN fflsrCONCILIATOKY SPIKIT. 305 

proceedings at the period, there seems to have been a sort of 
persistent pressure of the question, by the Republican leaders 
in the Senate, which was very likely to provoke resistance ; 
and which has the air, at least, of an eager desire to clutch 
the fruits of triumph before the defeated party had secured 
its retreat from the scene of action, likely so soon to remain 
altogether undisi^utcd. In regard to a part of these gentle- 
men — considering that things which are lawful are not, under 
all circumstances, expedient — their urgency would seem to 
indicate a certain unconsiousness of the impending crisis in 
the affairs of the country; since it would be uncharitable to 
charge them with indifference to a calamity so direful as 
civil war. The oj^portunity for the exercise of a conciliatory 
spirit was not yet past ; but there was little manifestation 
of it on either side. Probably, most of them had no clear 
conception of the real state of the case ; certainly, none of 
them could have formed any imagination of the actual course 
of future events. The hoarse murmurs of menaced danger 
to the Republic seem to have affected them scarcely more than 
the petulant outcry of a spoiled child. Even after Mr. Lin- 
coln had left his home in Illinois, and was on his way to 
Washington, for inaiiguration as President, and when the 
States of the Gulf had already passed formal ordinances of 
secession, he jestingly proclaimed, to an agitated and pro- 
foundly anxious people — "Nobody is hurt." * 

Upon the inti'oduction of the final bill for the admission 



- This very expression affords a key to much which would be otherwise 
inexplicable in accounting for the actual occurrence of the war. The country 
was sometimes graphically said, at the time, to be " drifting into war." The 
Republicans were, naturally enough, reluctant to admit their own responsi 
biUty for the existing state of things, and treated it as of trifling consequence. 
An extraordinary speech, delivered by Mr. Seward, at the New England Society 
dinner, at the Astor House, in December, 1860, is a case in point. It not only 
put aside, as a thmg not to be thought of, the idea of secession, or of any 
serious convulsion impending, but was fairly jubilant over the prospects of the 
future. On the other hand, the South, as was always perceived by others 
and remarked, was " terribly m earnest." 



306 OEIGLN^ OF THE LATE*WAE. 

of Kansas, Mr. Douglas declared, February 29th, 1860, in 
reply to a speech of Mr. Seward : 

"I repeat that their resistance [that of Mr. Seward and his associates] to 
carrying out in good faith the settlement of 1820, their defeat of the bill for 
extending it to the Pacific Ocean, was the sole cause of the agitation of 1850, 
and gave rise to the necessity of establishing the principle of non-intervention 
by Congress with slavery in the Territories. Hence, I am not willing to sit 
here and allow the Senator from New York, with all the weight of authority 
he has with the powerful party of which he is the head, to arraign me and 
the party to which I belong with the responsibility for that agitation which 
rests solely upon him and his associates." ^ 

In this ' allegation Mr. Douglas was clearly in the right. 
No matter by what unforeseen contingency it happened, that 
the line of 36° 30' could not be conveniently extended to the 
Pacific — and the only reason which could be offered, was the 
adoption of a constitution excluding slavery by the people of 
California, through the centre of which Territory the line 
would run — the repeal of the settlement of 1820 was accom- 
plished by the failure to fulfil its conditions, which prohibited 
slavery north and permitted it south of that line. The question 
in regard to California was, it would seem, an impractica- 
ble one ; but that Territory having been admitted to the 
tJnion, and provision made for the admission of New Mexico 
and Utah, both in contravention of the settlement of 1820, 
the Missouri Compromise was broken up altogether, in equity 
and in law. The national Whig Convention of 1852, as has 
been already shown, adopted this condition of things, " in 
principle and in siJDstance," and the national Democratic 
Convention of the same year took the same ground, though 
not employing the same language. The line of 30° 30' 
having been abandoned, therefore, the territories of the 
United States Avere subject, in respect to slavery or any other 
matter affecting them, only to such legislation as Congress 
could constitutionally provide in such cases.. Consequently, 
the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, was but a reaffirmation of 
the congressional action of 1850, affirmed as it had already 

' From the " Congressional Globe." 



WOKDS SOMETIMES MORE THAN DEEDS. 307 

been by tbe Conventions of the two great parties, and by a 
popular vote of 2,969,079, against that of a minority amount- . 
ing only to 157,296. And it may not be unreasonable to 
conjecture, tliat, if the framers of that act had contented 
themselves with providing only for the admission of terri- 
tories, either with slavery or without, accoi'ding to the will 
of the residents, leaving out any mention of the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, in terms, it would have been impos- 
sible to create any very extensive agitation on the subject. 

The popular mind may be stirred up by a direct proposition, 
which would excite no particular interest or feeling, if 
incidentally presented, though leading to precisely the same 
conclusions. It is not likely that ten out of a thousand of 
the people of the North ever examined this whole ques- 
tion, in its details. It was inevitable, therefore, that their 
views of it should be somewhat vague. Bvit traditional 
memories which hung round the words " Missouri Compro- 
mise " impressed them, as with a sort of sacred significance. 
Though practically repealed, four years before, yet when 
the specific proposition to do what had been actually done 
already was set before them in plain terras, it gave great 
advantage to those who were only too well inclined to mis- 
lead and to excite the popular masses. Hence, then, came, 
in conjunction Avith other causes already referred to, the 
astonishing increase of the Freesoil vote, from less than 
160,000, in 1852, to more than 1,300,000, in 1856; which 
grew in volume, so long as the fruitful theme of the Kansas 
troubles was kept in agitation, and which finally brought 
round the Republican triumph, with its i-esults. 

It is somewhat singular, that, in the course of the numer- 
ous debates which took place on the general subject, during 
so many years, it seems never to have occurred to those who 
discussed it, that the extension of slavery to a new territory, 
so far. from being equivalent to an increase of the system, 
tended rather to its diminution. Since slaves could not be 
imported into_ the country, those who would follow their 
masters to fresh fields of labor must necessarily be taken 



308 OEIGESI OF THE LATE WAR. 

from the main body already in the slave States. The ratio 
of the increase of this class of population, in its normal con- 
dition, is an ascertained fact. Whether they would be as 
likely to increase according to the ordinary ratio, amid the . 
severer labors of an unbroken region, as in the comj)arative 
ease and comfort of their accustomed abodes, especially if 
removed to a less genial climate, is a point about which a 
probably accurate judgment may be formed. At all events, 
it could be but the transfer of so many slaves, already exist- 
ing in the country, from one place of residence to another. 
The political question, of the increase of slave States, would 
still remain. But it has been heretofore shown, that, while 
the limits of slavery in the South were definitely fixed, the 
North had already a very large preponderance of popula- 
tion ; and that while the free States outnumbered the slave 
States at the period of the dispute,- the character of the 
gi-eat Northwestern territory precluded the idea of form- 
ing out of it, at any future time, any other than those of the 
former class. 

It may be remarked, in conclusion, upon this point, that 
however impolitic, in a popular sense, the Kansas-lSTebraska 
Act, of 1854, may have been in some of its tei*ms, it was, 
nevertheless, unavoidable, as a legislative measure, in its 
" principle and substance," whenever the organization of the 
Territory became necessary. The adoption of an opposite 
course would have been a violation of the Compromise meas- 
ures of 1850, of the pledges of the Whig and Democratic 
Conventions, and a revolt against the vote of the immense 
popular majority in 1852. Consistency, principle, therefore, 
and the very existence of a party as a national organization, 
depended upon the submission of the question at issue to the 
determination of the people in the several territories, under 
suitable provisions for the rightful exercise of their popular 
functions. By flinching from this doctrine, the old Whig 
party, so long one of the main supporters of a constitutional 
republic, ran headlong into the wild sea of unconstitutional 
radicalism; and upon this issue, the Democratic party, no 



THE FKUTTS OF VACILLATION^. 309 

less distinguished of old for its devotion to the cause of the 
Union, became hopelessly divided ; and, finally, with the as- 
surance of victory if it had stood together, yielded the field 
to those whom both sections of the party were most anxious 
to defeat, for the cause of honestly republican principles 
under the Constitution/ 

' By referring to the final resolution, of the series which passed the Senate, 
January 12th, 1838 (Appendix IV.), by a vote of nearly four to one, it will be 
seen that the very principle of the Compromise of 1850 and of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act was then made a test question. The House took no action upon 
those resolutions ; but at the first session of the twenty-fifth Congress, Mr. 
Atherton, of New Hampshire (December 11th, 1838), brought forward in the 
House a body of resolutions, covering the same general grounds as to Terri- 
tories and other points included in those adopted by the Senate. These passed 
the House, on the following day, by large majorities ; that one, which denied 
the right of Congress to interfere with slavery in the States, by the " indirect 
means " of acting upon petitions for its abolition in the District and in Terri- 
tories receiving the least support, the vote standing 126 yeas, to T3 nays. For 
sixteen years, therefore, and during the political discussions of four general 
elections, before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the point involved 
in that act had stood settled by the action of the two Houses, without any 
general question by the people. It is obvious, therefore, that the agitation to 
which that act gave rise, and which led to such direful consequences, could 
have resulted only from such a combination of activelv-working agencies as 
those described in the text. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Availability as the Motive of Nomination a Mistake of the Democracy in 1S56, as it was of 
the Whig Party in 1852. — Seditious Legislative Proceeding.— The Nomination of Fre- 
mont and Dayton the first Instance of Sectionalism, as to Candidates for the Pres- 
idency and Vice-Presidency. — Party Success, on merely available Grounds, insecure. — 
Southern Leaders seeking to inform themselves as to Northern Sentiment. — Visit of 
Mr. Davis to New England in 1868. — Mr. Toombs gives a Lecture in Boston. — Mr. 
Lincoln's Opinion of the State of Union Sentiment at the South, dm-ing the War. 

The object of this work has been to pomt out, m a some- 
what general way, the movements of popiahir feeling and the 
course of action of the several pai'ties, as tending towards 
certain results, not to examine the conduct of particular ad- 
ministrations of the General Government. It may, however, 
be properly enough suggested at this point, that the Demo- 
cratic party, however actuated by considerations thought 
important to insure success, at a great public exigency, and, 
doubtless, also, by patriotic views of public duty, may have 
committed a political error in failing to renominate President 
Pierce in 1856. "Without any reference to the subsequent 
turn of events, under tlie administration of his successor, 
President Buchanan, and allowing for the impossibility of 
foreseeing their progress and result, it was the evident fact 
that a great national question of absorbing interest, unex- 
pectedly coming up early in the term of President Pierce, 
must be met and be brought to an issue, mainly by the intel- 
ligent action and popular strength of the Democratic party 
throughout the country. The embarrassments with which 
the administration of the latter was encumbered, in relation 
to the disturbances in Kansas, grew out of causes at work 



CONDUCT OF PRESIDENT PIERCE. 311 

remote from the Territory itself, as has been already shown ; 
and causes which it was quite out of the power of the na- 
tional executive to control. In his message to Congress of 
January 24th, 1856, he remarked: 

" The inflammatory agitation, of which the present is but a part, has for 
twenty years produced nothing save unmitigated evil. North and South. But 
for it, the character of the domestic institutions of the future new State would 
have been a matter of too little interest to the inhabitants of the contig- 
uous States, personally or collectively, to produce among them any political 
emotion." 

It is difficult to see how he could have properly pursued 
any other course than that adopted, in regard to afiairs 
within the Territory. He had declined to interfere by force 
with the action, regular or irregular, of the people of • the 
Territory in their elections, on the just ground that it would 
be " subversive of public freedom." Nor could he have done 
so without incurring severe censure from one side or the 
other, perhaps from both. But when lawless violence ran 
riot through the Territory, he despatched a sufficient armed 
force to restore and maintain order, as soon as he could in- 
duce the reluctant Congress, which he had reassembled for 
the purpose, to vote the necessary supplies for the troops; a 
measure of public duty and necessity resisted by the oppo- 
nents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act,^ 

' After a long and exciting session, Congress finally adjourned, August 
18th, 1856, without passing the ordinary appropriation bill for the support of 
the army. This the House had refused to do, unless the Senate would agree 
to terms which would prevent the President from using the military force, 
according to his judgment of the exigency, in Kansas. The President, there- 
upon, issued his proclamation to reassemble Congress, August 21st. The 
House had proposed the following proviso : 

" That no part of the mihtary force of the United States, for the support 
of which appropriation was made by this act, shall be employed in aid of the 
enforcement of any enactment heretofore passed by the bodies claiming to be 
the Territorial Legislature of Kansas." 

The Senate proposed to strike out this, proviso, to which the House event- 
ually agreed, by a vote of yeas 101, to nays 98 ; and the bill having thus 
passed, the extra session ended, by adjournment, August 30th. 



312 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

'A Striking illustration of the difficulties witli whicli the 
administration was environed appears in the tenor of certain 
resolutions adopted by the Legislature of Massachusetts, 
which were approved June 3d, 1856. These resolutions came 
up in consequence of an order moved for the appropriation 
of a considerable sum of money by the State, in aid of 
ICansas. Tlie motion was advocated in the legislature, and 
by a part, at least, of the Freesoil press ; though its passage 
would evidently have placed the State in the open attitude 
of furnishing funds in aid of an insurrectionary condition of 
things on the distant border of civilization. Instead of tak- 
ing this step, the legislature ingeniously passed resolves com- 
mending the case to the popular favor and assistance, as fol- 
low*: 

Resolved, * * * That we have heard the call for sympathy and aid 
which has come up to the people of the United States from the settlers of 
Kansas/ * * * and while we do not claim that as a State legislature we 
are clothed with power to initiate measures for their relief, we nevertheless 
present their case to the people of this Commonwealth, in full confidence that 
they will use all just and constitutional means to aid these heroic men in main- 
taining and defending their liberties. 

The legislature thus stirred up the people, and, by its au- 
thority, solicited contributions in favor of the side with 
which it was in political sympathy, and which was in con- 
flict with the General Government. And the party thus al- 
ways most professed to guard themselves with the Constitu- 
tion, when most intent upon breaking it down. The resolves 
proceed to charge the disturbed state of aifaii's in the Terri- 
tory to the "neglect of the Government of the United States 
to protect the settlers " (meaning the Freesoil settlers) " and 
redress their wrongs;" and, in the same breath, refer to the 
action of the President in issuing a proclamation of warning 
to all those who, by any means, were seeking to resist the 
execution of the territorial laws. They leave in no doubt 
the state of mind in the Freesoil party, by declaring that 

* Doubtless from " old John Brown," who came to Massachusetts for that 
purpose. 



A DEMOCRATIC RESOLUTION. 313 

" the question of free or slave territory is become a promi- 
nent and vital issue before the country, and threatens to 
drive the nation into civil if^arP 

Kansas was then, and had been for two years, under a 
territorial government, by virtue of an act of Congress, and 
although the President was bound to see to it, that peace was 
kept or restored, as he did, by means of the ti-oops of the 
United States, yet he had no authority whatever to inter- 
fere with the popular vote in Kansas, or between the Gov- 
ernor of the Territory and its legislature, or to adjudicate 
upon alleged points of fraud in the conduct of its elections. 
At a later period in the history of the country we have seen 
less scruple exhibited, in giving executive direction to the 
popular action at elections, on a much larger scale, and under 
that plea of " necessity," which*was only the party necessity 
of obtaining a show of the major vote. 

The Democratic Convention which nominated Mr. Bu- 
chanan in 1856, could have used no terms more expressive 
of the views entertained by it. It declared : 

" The American Democracy recognize and adopt the prhiciples contained 
in the organic laws establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, as 
embodying the only sound and safe solution of the ' slavery question,' upon 
which the great national idea of the people of the whole country can repose 
in its determined conservatism of the Union — non-interference by Congress 
with slavery in State and Territory, or in the District of Columbia. That this 
was the basis of the Compromises of 1850 — confirmed by both the Democratic 
and Whig parties in national conventions — ratified by the people in the elec- 
tion of 1852 — and rightly applied to the organization of Territories in 1854." 

The same Convention, in the Avarmest language of com- 
prehensive eulogy, as well as by specification of particular 
policy pursued, proclaimed its unqualified approbation of 
the measures, and general conduct of the administration of 
President Pierce. It was, nevertheless, thought best to select 
Mr. Buchanan as the candidate, who had been out of the 
immediate sphere of, politics by reason of his absence as 
minister of the United States at the court of Great Britain. 
It was evident that no slight was intended to his predecessor, 
14 



314 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

who, it was understood, urged no pretensions to the nomina- 
tion ; but it was equally evident, that the doctrine of 
supposed " availability " was applied to the case, and that the 
direct issue before the people was thus in some measure 
avoided. The Democrats were shrewd enou^gh to be aware, 
that a great many persons would vote for the candidate of 
the party, who had never read the resolutions. It was upon 
these grounds, therefore, that it was thought best to take up 
a fresh candidate, whose name had not been mingled with 
the agitating Kansas imbroglio. It may well be questioned, 
whether that was not the j^ropitious moment for meeting the 
issue fairly and squarely, upon its very face. Not to do so 
indicated something of a shiver in the breeze. There is good 
reason to believe that President Pierce would have been 
reelected; and such a result would have definitively set- 
tled, in due time, and would have afforded the most favor- 
able means of settling the Kansas question, if the administra- 
tion, under which the original measure was adopted, had been 
sustained by the j^opular suffrage. The line was already 
drawn with considerable clearness, though not so stifHy as 
afterwards between those who accounted themselves the 
unswerving supporters of constitutionalprinciples, and those 
who, upon sectional grounds, had made the sectional nomina- 
tions of Mr. Fremont, of California, for President, and Mr. 
Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President ; the first instance 
in which one or the other of the candidates for these offices 
had not been selected from a slave State. 

In the election which ensued, Kentucky, so strongly 
impregnated with "Whig opinions, and. Tennessee, which 
also had voted for General Scott in 1852, notwithstanding 
allegations likely to prejudice his cause in a slave State, now 
cast their weight into the scale for Mr. Buchanan. In all the 
fifteen slave States, including Delaware, Mr. Fremont received 
but about twelve hundred votes ; and in all but four of those 
States, not a single ballot was thrown for the ticket which 
bore his name. It was felt to be a moment, indeed, when all 
other considerations should be postponed, for the one great 



HONESTY THE BEST POLICY. 315 

cause of sustaining the Constitution and upholding tlie Union. 
Hundreds of thousands of young men, probably, acted for 
the occasion with the party which supported the Fremont 
ticket, attracted by the air of spirited adventure which sur- 
rounded his name, who might, at a favorable future moment, 
have been dra^vn back to their old allegiance. It is likely, 
considering the immediate relation of affairs, that the whole 
Democratic strength, which was given to Mr. Buchanan, 
would have been equally at the command of the party, had 
it chosen to renominate Mr. Pierce. Nor does it look at all 
unlikely, that such a manifestatioft of firmness, on the part of the 
" unterrified " Democracy, might have secured it a still more 
decisive majority. Without meaning to institute any com- 
parison between the candidates, in other respects, it seems 
obvious that the constitutional cause would have been power- 
fully confirmed, by a frank attitude and by resolute action ; 
and that this course would have tended to the easier and ear- 
lier settlement of the impending troubles. And even if the 
tui-n of the political contest had proved in favor of Mi*. Fre- 
mont — matters were not then so ripe for civil disruption as 
four years afterwards, and might have been more readily ad- 
justed. At all events, had the " Fremonters " then succeeded, 
the people would have had more cheaply a lesson of the most 
salutary influence, which might have saved them from the 
abyss into w^iich they were finally induced to plunge. 

The Democratic success in the election proved, in fact, 
but a hollow victory. It led to the entanglement of a ques- 
tion, clearly enough before the people, with novel compli- 
cations, which tended to expedite the final catastrophe. The 
cry of the Freesoilers was — " Xo more slave territory." 
According to the action of Congress, ratified by a great ma- 
jority of the nation, the people of the several territories were 
left to detet"mine this question for themselves, when they 
came to form their State constitutions. It was a clear issue, 
upon which the Fi'eesoilers were in a very decided minority ; 
and nothing was needed but strict adherence to the point, 
and masnanimous efforts to hold the friends of constitutional 



316 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

principles together, to preserve the constitutional majority, 
and to add to it great numerical gains. It will be alleged, 
that the sort of spirit manifested by the leaders of public 
opinion in the South prevented such a consummation. Doubt- 
less a great diversity of views existed in the South. There 
were, here and there, zealous disunionists in that quarter, as 
there were at the North, who had long cherished the idea of 
separation. But it cannot be doubted, that the vast body of 
the people in every slave State, during the progress of these 
events, including the most able, influential, and by far the 
most in number of their leading men, were heartily attached 
to the Union, sincerely anxious to preserve it, and desired 
only to maintain those j)rinciples of the Constitution — whether 
right or wrong, in some of their interpretations of them — 
upon which the Union was founded, and which were essen- 
tial to its preservation, iinimpaired in its original purity and 
integrity. For example, after general religious communion 
between the North and the South had ceased,' and general 
stagnation prevailed, as to their social intercourse, Mr. Jef- 
ferson Davis spent the summer months of the year 1858 in 
New England, with his family ; visited its princij^al cities and 
addressed public assemblies, on several occasions with great 
acceptance. A visitor of his character and standing could 
not fail to enjoy ample opportunity of conversation with all 
classes of citizens ; and it was well known that he left for his 
Southern home with strong impressions, derived from the prev- 
alent tone of sentiment, that the disputes which had so long 
tended to alienate the two sections from each other would 
pass by, Avithout leading to any more serious consequences 

' There were very few pulpits at the North, at this period, to which a 
pastor would venture to invite a brother clergyman from a slave State, should 
such a one happen to be in the neighborhood, to preach a Gospel addressed 
to all nations, in any one of which, at the time of its promulgation, slavery 
was the common practice, and in regard to which practice it contains no re- 
proof. The American Tract Society had already been formally divided ; the 
main office remaining at New York, while the New England seceding branch 
had its headquarters at Boston, and became an active organ of abolition. 



SODTHEKN MEN AT THE EAST. 317 

than those which had been already experienced. It was sup- 
posed that Mr. Davis repaired to New England for the pur- 
pose of satisfying himself and his Southern friends on this 
very subject — in a word, to learn, by personal investigation, 
whether the idea was seriously entertained by considerable 
masses of the Northern population, as was more or less indi- 
cated by the tone of not a few members of Congress from 
that quarter, of pressing the question of slavery or antisla- 
very to the point of submission, or resistance by the South. 
Many others of the chief citizens of that part of the country 
also visited the North, at or about the same period, probably 
with the same general view of inquiiy and observation; and two 
years earlier, Mr. Toombs, by invitation of the Boston " Mer- 
cantile Library Association," delivered before a numerous as- 
sembly of that literary body, a lecture which was devoted to 
the discussion of domestic slavery, as it existed in the United 
States, in its constitutional and social relations.^ 

Indeed, President Lincoln himself, while the war was 
still raging, without apparent prospect of speedy termination, 
did not hesitate to say, in one of his characteristic address- 
es to the jDublic, that, except in South Carolina, he believed 
that a majority of the people in every Southern State were 
still for the Union at heart.'' Nor does there seem to be any 
room for rational doubt, that the fact, more or less corre- 
spondent with his opinion, continuing unchanged to the end 
of the war, rendered the success of the Confederacy imprac- 
ticable, and hastened the final result. 

* On the evening of January 24th, 1856. 

'^ In a debate in the Senate on the state of the Union, on the 10th of 
December, 1860, when affaks had so nearly ripened for open secession, Mr. 
Dixon, of Connecticut, declared that the true way to restore harmony was, 
" by cheerfully and honestly assuring to every section its constitutional rights. 
iVo section professes to ask more ; no section ought to offer less." He added 
that three-quarters of his constituents would uphold him in this position. 
Whereupon, Mr. Davis's colleague, Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, said : " If the 
same spirit could prevail which actuates the Senator who has just now taken 
his seat, a different state of things might be produced in twenty daysy — Cot'- 
gressional Globe, December 11th, 1860. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Hostility to a fundamental Provision of Lav led to the War.— Other Causes which 
concurred.— Mr. "Webster's Expression, " A Bargain broken on one Side, is broken on 
all Sides," in 1851, showing his Opinion of the State of Things at that Period.— The 
Book, called " The Impending Crisis of the South," recommended by Eepublican 
Members of Congress and others. — The " Harper's Ferry Invasion." 

The future impartial historian of the republic Avill not 
be Kkely to fail in the conclusion, that those gradually ac- 
cumulating causes which at length, according to the ordinary 
motives which govern the actions of mankind, rendered the 
war inevitable — though unwise and certainly needless, could 
the calmer sentiment of the country, on both sides, have 
found means to exercise its due influence — resulted, by imme- 
diate occasion, from hostility to a fact in the domestic life of 
one section of the country, which was recognized as a mat- 
ter of fundamental national law, by the spirit and the terms 
of the original compact between all the States. 

Other causes of discord had cooperated with this one, 
from time to time ; but they were either temporary in their 
nature, or of minor imjDortance, or of a character less capa- 
ble of attracting and engrossing popular interest. They were 
able, neither singly nor in combination, to produce such a 
general sense of incompatibility of temper and interest be- 
tween the sections, or such deep-seated alienation of feeling, 
as to impel a civilized and Christian nation to contemplate 
the dread arbitrament of civil war. But, during the progress 
of the ten years immediately preceding that event, the sole 
topic of slavery, in one aspect or another, had mainly en- 
gaged the popular mind, in connection with every political 



AGGRESSION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 319 

movement and demonstration.' In the North, it took, of 
course, the shape, and bore the character of assault upon 
that part of the country of which slavery was a domestic 
feature. In the South, whatever form the question may have 
taken, cither in i*egard to the protection or the extension of 
slavery, it was, of course, in the attitude of defence. How 
far the right and even the necessity of defence may have been 
appealed to, either beyond or within the bounds of expedi- 
ency, in particular instances, considering the relative situa- 
tion of the parties, is a totally different question. In general, 
though not always — as in the case of the refusal to extend 
the compromise line of 1820 to its natural limit of the Pacific 
Ocean — or, as many of its peoj^le thought, in the provisions 
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act — the South had been able, after 
severe struggles, to secure what it deemed necessary for its 
permanent safety, under the shelter of the Constitution. But, 
exposed to incessant assaults, directly or indirectly, and 
which at length grew vehement and aggravated, upon its 
social, moral, and religious condition, it had long felt a burn- 
ing sense of wrong, and in this state of mind men are not 

^ The tariff question afforded the only other serious cause of discussion ; 
but naturally had less influence with the popular masses. In the North, the 
Whigs in general had favored a tariff for protection to domestic manufac- 
tures ; the Democrats preferred one for revenue solely, and the incidental pro- 
tection it would afford ; the difference between them being one of terms and 
degree, therefore, rather than of principle, while the South was, generally, on 
the free trade side. Yet, during the session of Congress, in the winter of 
1860-1861, while the country was on the very verge of war, a new system 
of high duties, usually known as " the Morrill tariff," from the name of the 
member from Vermont, by whom it was introduced, was carried through Con- 
gress by the RepubUcans ; and that, too, against the earnest remonstrances of 
some of the more leading Republican journals in Xew York and elsewhere, 
on account of the existing condition of public affairs. No doubt this meas- 
ure had its effect at the South ; and there can be as little doubt that an ex- 
traordinary resolution of the Convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln, in the 
preceding summer, hereafter referred to in these pages, which promised pro- 
tection of this description to the agricultural and commercial, as well as to 
manufacturing interests of the country, and even to the laboring classes, had 
a powerful influence in swelling the Repubhcan vote at the election. 



820 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

often controlled by considerations of policy. The North 
could only complain of the South for resistance to its politi- 
cal objects, with which it had seen fit to mix up certain 
moral and religious views. But if the position of the former 
was one of unadulterated and indisputable virtue, that of 
the other necessarily implied an opposite relation to the re- 
quirements of good conscience ; and to be forced into such 
an attitude, with a deep sense of the injustice of the pro- 
cedure, could not but tend to weaken any ordinary feelings 
of attachment to the Union. Although unsuccessful efforts 
had been made to bring about this unhappy state of things, 
for several years preceding the period now tinder considera- 
tion, as has been already ^hown in previous pages of this 
volume — it was upon the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that 
the first issue was directly taken. This movement was also 
unsuccessful, in its immediate influence, as appeared by the 
popular vote of the North, at the two succeeding elections of 
President. The real objection to the law, on the part of its 
more violent assailants, consisted in their opposition to any 
law for the delivery of fugitive slaves. But by incessantly 
working upon the popular mind, through every channel by 
which it could possibly be reached, a state of feeling was 
finally produced which led to the enactment of Personal 
Liberty bills, by one after another of the Northern legisla- 
tive assemblies. At length, fourteen of the sixteen free 
States had provided statutes which rendered any attempt to 
execute the Fugitive Slave Act so difficult as to be practically 
impossible, and placed each of those States in an attitude of 
virtual resistance to the laws of the United States.' It is 
certain that a state of feeling thus indicated could not be 
considered especially friendly to the cause of the Union, or 
calculated to encourage those sentiments of veneration to it, 
so earnestly enjoined by the admonitions of Washington. 
Nor could legislative proceedings, thus framed, in order to 

* At a somewhat later period, the executive officers of Ohio and Iowa re- 
fused to surrender to justice persons charged with participation in the " John 
Brown raid." 



STATE OF FEELING, NORTH AND SOUTH. 321 

prevent the vindication of a constitutional right, which had 
been pursued throughout tlie Northern States for seventy- 
years, in the rare instances which occurred, without any ob- 
struction, and with the ready aid of the local State magis- 
trates, tend materially to the promotion of comfortable 
feelings in the South. In fact, those laws, in connection with 
the repeated rescues of slaves by mobs from the custody of 
oiEcers who had them in charge, together with constant in- 
citements offered to slaves in the Border States to desert 
their masters, produced the profoundest feeling of indigna- 
tion in that quarter. 

If the South might then have been beginning to think 
of revolt, it is no less certain that, at that period, the North 
not only appeared to be in a state of almost continual riot 
against the laws of the General Government, but that those 
seditiously disposed were encouraged to evade and resist 
those laws, by the proceedings of the State legislatures.' 
But the objects which the fanatics and trading politicians 
failed to effect, immediately, through factious opposition to 
a law which the most respected judicial tribunals, in every 
quarter of the land, pronounced to be in strict conformity 
with the solemn engagements of the Constitution, the Kan- 
sas-Nebraska Act furnished them with a more manageable 
instrument to accomplish. Flighty denunciations of a law, 
obviously right in principle, whatever objections might be 
thought to exist to some of its details, and which was sus- 
tained by the best judicial opinions throughout the country, 
could hardly commend themselves to the convictions of con- 
siderate men, however strong their repugnance might be to 
the institution of slavery. But the act for the organization 

' Mr. Webster's opiuion upon this special point was given in no doubtful 
terms, in a speech delivered by him, at Capon Springs, Virginia, in 1851. He 
remarked : " I do not hesitate to say and repeat, that if the Northern States 
refuse wilfully or deliberately to carry into effect that part of the Constitution 
which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, the South would no longer 
be bound to keep the compact. A bargain broken on one side, is broken on 
all sides." 

14* 



322 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

of the Territories in question, and the various proceedings 
under it, afforded unending themes of appeal to popular prej- 
udice and passion. Those fanatics and trading politicians, 
who had already despaired of their cause, now jumped upon 
their feet again, and declaimed, with a strength of vociferation 
hardly to have been expected from their late dispirited con- 
dition. " It repeals the sacred engagement of the Missouri 
Compromise ! " was the hypocritical cry of political dissem- 
blers, notoriously engaged, at the moment, and who had been 
long engaged in resisting, and in striving utterly to nullify 
the sacred engagement of the Constitution ! The engage- 
ment to restore fugitive slaves had been ratified by the whole 
people, in settling the foundations of the Union. The Mis- 
souri Compromise was but an act of Congress, saci-ed only 
in correspondence with its specific virtue ; open to repeal, 
certainly, like any other act, at any subsequent session of the 
National Legislature, if a contingency, unforeseen at the time 
of its enactment, seemed to render such repeal expedient and 
justifiable. It had been adopted, so far as concerned the 
admission of Missouri, with slavery, which constituted the 
only compromise involved in it, against the most strenuous 
opposition of Northern members of Congress in general, 
and against a large majority of the votes of Noi'thern Repre- 
sentatives. It was repealed, in fact, by the large majority 
vote from the North, in Congress, which cut in two the line 
of compromise, fixed upon by it, and who refused to extend 
that line to the Pacific Ocean. 

In the language of Mr. "Webster, quoted above, " A bar- 
gain broken on one side, is broken on all sides." In reality, 
the law of 1854, called the Kansas-Nebraska Act, did but put 
into words the deed done in 1850, called the Compromise of 
that year ; and that deed was done by the power of the 
North, against the express claim of the South, that it would 
be content with the engagement of 1820, called the Missouri 
Compromise, carried out honestly in its spirit and its terms. 
This source of disjoute continued open, as has been already 



THE CONSPIRACY m CONGEESS. 323 

shown, until the consummation of the causes of rebellion, in 
the winter of lSGO-1861. 

It has been also shown, that most of the Northern mem- 
bers of Congress, in both branches, had associated themselves 
together at Washington, in an organized body, for a sectional, 
and, in its spirit, an unlawful pui'pose, in the sjiring of 1854. 
With the extraordinary means and influence of such a con- 
gressional combination, they had largely, though secretly, 
circulated aj^peals to popular feeling, which were practically 
in resistance, and Avere calculated to stir the people up in 
resistance to a formal measure of the deliberative assembly, 
of which these gentlemen were themselves component parts, 
and in which they ought to have remembered that they were 
national representatives, instead of the partisans of a section. 
It can hardly be contended, by rational men, that this was 
not a specifically seditious organization. If no act of " ag- 
gression " had been heretofore committed, here was one, at 
least, justly to be considered a covert conspiracy, directly 
hostile to the futui*e peace and welfare of the country. Sup- 
posing the motive to be foir, and the object contemplated 
honest, they would afibi-d no warrant for an undertaking thus 
pursued; except by admission of the doctrine that "the end 
sanctifies the means," so fearfully denounced by the Scrip- 
tural text, as doing evil that good may come. The voice of 
Clay, alas ! was now hushed amid the groves of Ashland ; 
the heart of Webster, " buried by the upbraiding shore " of 
Marshfield. It needed but their trumpet-tones, in the halls 
of Congress, to have pierced to the marrow and the dividing 
asunder of such an unholy alliance, and to have stamped it, 
in its inception, with the characteristics of everlasting rep- 
robation. 

But now, from the same source, proceeded another act of, 
originally, secret, and even less excusable, "aggression." A 
book had been written, filled witfi the most unsparing denun- 
ciation of the Southern people, in regard to their " peculiar 
institution," their principles, habits, aud general condition ; 



324 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

their public and private, their social, political, moral, and 
religious state. It urged the extinguishment of slavery by 
the most Aaolent and unsparing means ; and the virtual pro- 
scriiDtion of slaveholders, and of all others, in either section, 
"who maintained any political or social relations with them. 
In fine, it attempted to fix such a thoroughly debased and 
vicious chai'acter upon the slaveholding population of the 
South, and those in sympathy with them, in that quarter, as 
to make it seem to the faithful a sort of virtue to exterminate 
outright such " ruffians, outlaws, and criminals," * 

This book bore, as the name of its author, that of a person 
called Hel^jer, said to be a ISTorth Carolinian ; but who, of 
course, did not continue to reside in that State after his 
work saw the light. It was quite apparent that the book 
was prepared in the Xorth, and intended for Noi'thern circu- 
lation alone ; for it could have no other, except as a matter 
of investigation, by such persons in the South as wished to 
examine its contents for other purposes than edification. For 
instance, its actual origin was at once betrayed by one of 
the modes of active operation prescribed in it, that "is — 
" AbrujDt discontinuance of subscription to proslavery news- 
papers." This sentence could only be applicable to journals 
so reputed, at the North ; that is, to those which upheld the 

' The following passages are extracts from this amiable work : 

" Our own banner is inscribed : No cooperation with slaveholders in poli- 
tics ; no fellowship with them in religion ; no affiliation with them in society ; 
no recognition of proslavery men, except as ruffians, outlaws, and criminals. 

" Immediate death to slavery ; or, if not immediate, unqualified proscrip- 
tion of its advocates during the period of its existence. 

" It is our honest conviction that all the proslavery slaveholdei^ deserve at 
once to be reduced to a parallel with the basest criminals that lie fetteped 
within the cells of our public prisons. 

" We are determined to abolish slavery at all hazards — in defiance of all 
the opposition, of whatever nature, it is possible for the slaveocrats to bring 
against us. Of this they may take due notice, and govern themselves ac- 
cordingly. 

" We believe it is, as it ought to be, the desire, the determination, and the 
destiny of the Eepublican party to give the death-blow to slavery." 



" THE IMPENDING CKISIS." 325 

principles of the Constitution and the Union ; since those of 
the South were uniformly of a "proslavery" description, 
and could have had no existence there except in that char- 
acter. Irldeed, a work so intemperate and ferocious could 
only have owed its 2:»reparation to some one of the craziest 
of the Northern fanatics, assisted in such a laudable and 
patriotic undertaking by other persons, who designed to use 
it for party purposes.* In a word, this reckless tissue of 
fabrications, thus endorsed, was a "campaign document." 
Such as it was, it received the written recommendation of no 
less than sixty-eight Republican members of Congress. It 
would be doiog injustice to some of those gentlemen, pro- 
fessedly men of Christian principles, to suppose that they 
had given the book more than the merest cursory inspection, 
before they so imprudently, and, perhaps, in many instances, 
by the mere force of example, affixed their signatures to the 
formal and strongly commendatory certificate which helped 
to give the book its extensi^'e circulation. Indeed, Avhen 
this matter came up afterwards, in Congress, in the debates 
upon the election of Speaker, there was much said by way 
of palliation of the act, on the ground of incaution exercised, 
and of that sort of heedless subscription, for the purpose of 
getting rid of the applicant, or because others had first set 
down their names, which has been only too often practised, 
by men who forget how their reputations are thus put at 
stake, and which often leads to the most injurious conse- 
quences. It is a pity that a similar apology, such as it is, could 
not be urged on behalf of Mr. Sewayl, the acknowledged 
leader of the Republican party, at the time, who aflforded the 

' Besides the congressional testimonial in favor of this book, described in 
the pages following, it had the recommendation of a great number of leading 
men in the Republican party ; and in a certificate signed by several of this 
description in New York, including members of the Republican committee, 
and editors of Freesoil newspapers, it was particularly commended as useful 
to circulate in several of the Western free States, the vote of which would be 
essential in the approaching election of President. 



326 OEIGLN" OF THE LATE WAR. 

work his unqvialifiecl approval, after a careful perusal of its 
contents.^ 

The book, and the recommendation thus procured for it, 
were artfully contrived for effect among a large class of the 
Northern people, who were ignorant of the means of con- 
tradiction, and of whatever qualifying facts might have been 
adduced. The people of the quarter so violently assailed, 
would naturally disdain attempts at refutation; but the 
falsehoods, and the acrimony with which they were brought 
forward, produced among them the natural, perhaps, the in- 
tended results, of indignation and fiery remonstrance. Cer- 
tain it is, that such a libel, so authorized, against a people 
who have more recently shown the world how well deserved, 
or otherwise, such a description of them might be, could 
have little salutary influence towai'ds promoting the cause 
of the Union. But the immediate effect of this publication 
was a sensible reaction in the general public sentiment of 
the North, and in Congress. This appeared especially when 
that body came together, in December, 1858, and the elec- 
tion for Speaker of the House was under consideration. Mr. 
Sherman, of Ohio, who was the candidate of the Republican 
party, proved to be one of the signers of the Helper testi- 
monial ; and, although he affirmed that he had never read 
the book, and had totally forgotten the fact of signing the 
paper in question, yet ignorance was held to be no excuse, 
on the part of a gentleman of his standing ; so that, after a 
contest of several months, and many ballotings, his party 
were compelled to withdraw his name from the canvass, and 

* The following endorsement by Mr. Seward undoubtedly had the most 
mischievous effect: 

" Atjettrn, N. T., June 28th, 185T. 
" Gentlemen : I have received from you a copy of the recent publication, 
entitled the ' Impending Crisis of the South,' and have read it with the deep- 
est attention. It seems to me a work of great merit ; rich, yet accurate in 
statistical information, and logical in its analogies ; and I do not doubt it 
will exert a great influence on the public mind, in favor of truth and justice. 
" I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, W. H. Seward." 



THE ATTACK ON HAKPEr's FEKEY. 327 

a Speaker was eventually chosen who was not liable to the 
offensive imputation in question/ 

It was not singular, considering the morbid temper to 
which it is evident that popular feeling in the North had be- 
come extensively wrought up, that such a headstrong and 
reckless fanatic as "John Brown," should have conceived the 
idea of promoting a servile insurrection. The events of that 
equally foolish and criminal undertaking — his hardihood, his 
ignorance, his want of means and influence, his incapacity to 
compare these deficiences with the reqiiirements for an enter- 
prise so formidable, his utter failure to accomplish any part 
of the object contemplated, except the alarm of a peaceful 
village and the murder of several of its unoffending inhab- 
itants ; his capture and trial and execution ; the immense 
sensation created throughout the whole coimtry, made up 
partly of indignation at an attempt so ferocious, and partly 
of ridicule at the inadequacy of the preparation ; the total 
want of effect upon the reluctant slaves,'' and the generally 

* It was during the protracted and sharp debates of this contest for the 
Speakership, that portions of a pamphlet, alleged to have been widely circu- 
lated through the Xorth and the South, were read in the House of Representa- 
tives, upon motion of one of the members, which contained a plan of as- 
sociation for the purpose of carrying on hostilities against the latter part 
of the country. Amongst other things, it proposed " to land mihtary forces 
in the Southern States, who shall raise the standard of freedom, and call the 
slaves to it, and such free persons as may be willing to join it." The purpose 
was thus more particularly developed : 

" Our plan is to make war, openly or secretly as circumstances may dictate, 
upon the property of the slaveholders and their abettors ; not for its destruc- 
tion, if that can be easily avoided, but to convert it to the use of the slaves. 
If it cannot be thus converted, we advise its destruction. Teach the slaves 
to bum their masters' buildings, to kiU their cattle and hogs, to conceal and 
destroy farming utensils, to abandon labor in seed-time and harvest, and let 
the crops perish." 

A great deal of this sort of " philanthropy " was heard of from some 
quarters, during the progress of the rebellion, and not a little of it put in 
practice. 

" In the testimony of Colonel Lewis Washington, who was seized and kept 
a prisoner, with some of his slaves, by Brown, until rescued by the party of 



328 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

ignominious issue of the adventure ; the tolling of bells and 
the firing of minute-guns, upon the occasion of Brown's 
funeral; the meeting-houses draped in mourning, as for a 
hero ; the prayers offered, the sermons and discourses pro- 
nounced in his honor as for a saint — all are of a date too 
recent and are too familiarly known, to require more than 
this passing allusion. 

Of course, a transaction so flagitious, with its attendant 
circumstances, affording such unmistakable proof of the 
spirit by which no small portion of the Northern population 
was actuated, could but produce the profoundest impression 
upon the people of the South. Here was ojDen and armed 
" aggression ; " whether clearly imderstood and encouraged 
beforehand, certainly exixlted in afterwards, by persons of a 
very different standing from that of the chief actor in this 
bloody incursion into a peaceful State. Yet, notwithstanding 
the deep resentment manifested at the South, in a certain 
sense, the "raid" was a clear matter of triumph to that quar- 
ter. It plainly revealed the quiet and contented disposition 
of its slave population, a point so thoroughly confirmed by 
the uniform experience of the war, but which was supposed 
by many at the North to be always " pantingly " on the 
point of rising. It afforded, also, in the prominence of a fact 
so startling and atrocious, an imauswerable argument against 
the fanatical tendencies of the North. In the latter section, 
its influence was, also, in no small degree favorable to the 
common cause of the country. The publication of the " Im- 
pending Crisis of the South" had disgusted and checked 
some, if it had misled and stimulated others ; but the " John 
Brown Raid," presented in all its living features of actual 

U. S. troops, under Colonel Kobert E. Lee, appears the following question and 
answer in regard to the aifair : 

" Question. — Did it excite any spirit of insubordination among your ne- 
groes ? 

" Answei'. — Not the slightest. If any thing, they were much more tracta- 
ble than before." — Senate Report, p. 40. 



MOEBID KELIGIOUS SYMPATHY. 329 

enormity, seemed to bring a practical, visible crisis to the 
whole country nearer at hand. From such a contingency 
considerate men shrank with honest dread ; and a sensible 
reaction took place, capable of being made to serve the best 
purposes, for the promotion and security of the common peace 
and welfare. 

The character of this assault upon the military post 
of Harper's Ferry is to be judged of, however, not by the 
insignificance of the instruments, or by its inevitable failure 
to accomplish the end designed. It assumes importance, 
or otherwise, just in proportion to the countenance given to 
it by others than those immediately engaged in it ; to the 
approbation subsequently bestowed by the public upon the 
actors, and to the numbers of those willing to become acces- 
sories after the fact to a deed of midnight murder, intended 
to be the inauguration of a servile insurrection, in the exer- 
cise of suificient strength to give loose to all the atrocities 
and brutalities common to such a savage uprising. And 
nothing was here wanting to insure a more wide-spread scene 
of horror and desolation than the world, perhaps, had ever 
before witnessed, except a totally different relation between 
the masters and their servants in the South, than that falsely 
imagined by the conspirators, and by those in sympathy with 
them, either before or after the fact. Of course, the reverend 
clergy, the good men and good women, who met in the sanc- 
tuaries of the Father of Mercies, to celebrate an attempt so 
full of the omens of miseries unutterable, and to mourn over 
its ill success, must have seen this transaction through a very 
different medium from that by which questions not subject to 
the beguilements of casuistry ordinarily present themselves 
to a truly Christian mind. They rejoiced, in fact, that a sup- 
posed moral object had been sought by the commission of a 
deliberate crime, and, under an unhappily perverted sense of 
the right, supposed that the end aimed at justified the means. 
But, according to the degree in which it was met by the 
favorable response of the North — though in itself but the 
skii-mish of an outpost, in its immediate incidents — it never- 



330 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

theless betokened iDredeterminecl enmity in one part of the 
Union against another part ; was an overt act of hostility 
towards the Government, in the peace of which only could 
the Union stand secure, and was the signal and forerunner 
of war. 

Indeed, at this moment, the conservative masses of the 
country possessed an immense superiority of physical and 
moral force over their opponents ; and could that have heen 
guided by prudence and patriotism, it must have resulted 
in the entire and permanent overthrow of the now concen- 
trated elements of radicalism and discord. At the election 
for President, in the ensuing year, the Republican candidate, 
Mr. Lincoln, fell short of a majority by nearly a million of 
votes ; while his plurality, in the free States alone, was 
considerably less than two hundred thousand.' It needed 
now, far more than upon the important occasion to which 
Mr. Benton referred "in a note to the Debates in Congress, 
already cited in his volume, "the last words of the last great 
men of that wonderful time." There were many still upon the 
stage, inspired by as noble sentiments of patriotism as had ever 
animated the hearts of elder patriots ; but the latter had left 
few or no successors to the powerful influence which they per- 
sonally exerted, and which had been found hitherto able to 
compose the stormy passions by which the country had at 
times been agitated. But, although the multitude, under 
the whip applied by a very inferior order of men, was fast 
getting possession of the bit, to run the sort of helter-skelter 
race which usually occurs under such circumstances, it 
needed, after all, but a very little of that true spirit of con- 
ciliation, among persons of substantial influence, on both 

^ Lincoln's vote was 1,85Y,611 ; the combined vote of Douglas, Breckin- 
ridge, and Bell amounted to 2,804,560. In the free States, the Eepublicaus 
cast 1,T31, 182 votes; the opposition, 1,544,218. In the five of the fifteen 
slaves States, which cast a certain number of votes for Lincoln, namely : Dela- 
ware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Vu-ginia, the aggregate reached 26,- 
430 — principally cast in Missouri, namely, 17,028. In the same States, the 
Bum of the votes for his opponents was 561,068. 



THE DUTY OF CHKISTIAN PATKIOTS. 331 

sides, which should have marked the conduct of fellow-citi- 
zens, in an enlightened and Christian age, to avert that ter 
rible impending catastrophe, which, it is not to be supposed, 
that tlie great majority, upon either side, could have really 
desired to bring lapon the common country. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Want of Fidelity to the Constitution placed the Country in Circumstances tending to Open 
Eypture. — " Historicus." — The Necessity of Strict Adherence to Constitutional Pro- 
visions in a Republic— The Danger still before the Country. — The South, in a Con- 
stitutional Point of View. — Ex-Governor Andrew before a Committee of the Senate. — 
The " People " did not bring about the "War. — The Disunionists, in both Sections, to 
whom it was owing, few in Number. — Governor Banks willing " to let theUnion slide." 
— A State Flag. — A Revolutionary Relic. — Mr. Quincy. — Red Republicans. — Mr. John 
P. Hale's Opinion of the Likelihood of Dissolution if Lincoln should not be elected. 

In the facts, thus imperfectly set forth iu these pages, are 
to he found the positive causes of the war. These worked 
themselves out to the fatal hour of that decisive breach in the 
Democratic party, which opened the way to the " dishonest 
victory " of the Republicans — dishonest, not because tlie 
election was not lawful and regular according to the forms of 
the Constitution ; but that, in consequence of its accidental 
result by the divisions of the majority, it so thoroughly mis- 
represented the real state of sentiment in the country. In 
fine, — want of fidelity to the Constitution — a long and devi- 
ous iiberration from the simjDlest fundamental principles of 
the Union — exhibited in such manifestations as have been de- 
scribed in this recapitulation, led directly to that unhappy 
state of mind, in both sections, which grew more and more 
embittered, until finally the die was cast.' Were it not so, 

^ In a recently published letter of tlie distinguished English writer, known 
as " Historicus " (October 18th, 1865), appears the following passage, in ref- 
erence to a judicial opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States : 

" These are the words of a judgment (pronounced, be it remembered, by 
the Northern majority of the Court) : ' This greatest of civil wars was not 
gradually developed by popular commotion, tumultuous assemblies, or local 



THE CONSTITUTION THE ONLY SAFEGUAED. 333 

those earnest aud solemn rflnonstrances of Webster (the 
" Defender of the Constitution"), of Clay, of Crittenden — of 
liosts of far-seeing and patriotic citizens, dead or yet among 
the living — remonstrances so long aud faithfully sonnded in 
the ears of a too incredulous people — might now seem as idle 
as the faltering accents of the most visionary alarmists. 

But this view of the case is the more important to be 
taken into the most solicitous consideration, by the people of 
the United States, because any secure possession of their 
civil rights is absolutely dependent upon unvarying adhesion 
to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. For that 
great instrument, defining and restraining the powers of those 
persons in the rejDresentative, executive, and judicial depart- 
ments of the Government, to whom the people from time to 
time commit the administration of the laws, is the sole char- 
ter of their political liberties, and their only barrier against 

unorganized insurrection. If it had been, it might have been proper to wait 
and see whether it was about to ripen into war. But in this case, there 
was neither necessitj' nor justification for waiting.' For, continues the same 
judgment, ' however long may have been its previous conception, it never- 
theless sprang from (he parent brain of Minerva in the full panoply of 
war.' " 

Sa)"ing nothing of this judicial reversal of a classical legend, or of the 
philosophy which could suppose it possible for a great rebellion to spring 
up at the stamp of a foot, in a country where a very great many must have 
been previously consulted on the subject — considering the fierce and pro- 
tracted struggle of 1850 and its result; the tumults for such a series of years, 
and the battles, in Kansas ; the slave-rescues by the violence of mobs ; the as- 
saults upon court-houses, not always without incurring the dreadful guilt of 
murder ; the invasion of Virginia, and its effects upon both sections ; the mul- 
titudes of excited popular assembhes in city and town ; and innumerable other 
incidents occurring in various parts of the country, for the ten years before 
the outbreak — showing a decidedly morbid condition of the public mind — it 
may be respectfully remarked, that the "Northern majority of the Court" 
cannot have observed the course of events so carefully as they, doubtless, 
study the points of law submitted to them. The truth is, the country was full 
of warnings, and everybody expected war, from the signs of the times, but the 
Republican leaders. They were naturally reluctant to admit that any thing 
for which they were responsible could be the occasion of unpleasant conse- 
quences. 



334 OEiGEsr OF the late wae. 

usurpation. It is itself the gof^rnment, of which men, duly 
chosen for the purpose, are only administrators. If dis- 
regarded in any one of its essential provisions — no matter 
under what plea, or what pretext — though the forms of a re- 
public may for a time, and possibly, from habit or whatever 
cause, for a considerable time, may remain ; yet the life of 
the republic will have, in fact, departed. The people, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, may be attending to their farms 
and their merchandise ; but in all their political relations they 
will have become subject to the dictation of a master. The 
President might then be elected, for one term, or for many 
successive terms, according to his own pleasure. Thus, Au- 
gustus Cffisar, and others after him, went through with the 
formalities and the farce of an election to the consulship, 
while actually and permanently wielding, under the style and 
by the authority of emperor,' the fortunes of the Roman 
world. Hence, things may often be at their worst, when 
they seem the smoothest ; the power of the State may easily 
and imperceptibly pass from the many to the few, or the one ; 
and popular liberty, so difficult to be won and established, 
may be lost beyond recovery, in the briefest space of time, 
before the danger to which it is constantly exposed has been 
thought at all imminent, at any particular emergency. And, 
if it should be alleged, that the republic has heretofore sur- 
vived unconstitutional proceedings of the Executive, or of 
Congress, without permanent iujuiy to its institutions — it 
should be observed, that a vital distinction exists between 
those acts which are merely exti'a-constitutional ; that is, those 
not especially provided for by the instrument, but which do 
prejudice to no man's rights ; as, for example, in case of ac- 
quisition of territory by purchase for the common benefit — 
and acts which are anti-constitutional ; that is, whicb infringe 

' Simply imperator, commander ; the chief officer of an army, as we 
now say, " General ; " but bestowed upon persons clothed with high mili- 
tary authority, as incident to the government of a province, for example. It 
was retained as the popular title of him who really possessed the supreme 
command of the armies aud the State. 



THE CONSTITUTION SIUST BE INVIOLATE. 660 

the express provisions of the instrument, and deprive any 
number of citizens of that safeguard, which the government, 
by the charter of its existence, was bound to afford to their 
property and political privileges. For, whenever the latter 
class of unconstitutional measures is allowed, or is extenuated 
by the popular assent, the shield, which was their protection, 
broken through in a vital part, crumbles into fragments, in 
the whole. No art or care can then make the well-wrought 
fabric, so delicate, yet so strong in its entireness, able to re- 
sist another blow ; and self-government will no longer exist, 
except in name. Under a hereditary government, a violation 
of the Constitution is a very different affair. It is a casualty 
which need leave no permanent ill effects, if the .steps are 
retraced and the remedy applied ; and still the government 
stands secure. But under republican forms, the Constitution 
is the anchor by which they are held. To violate it, there- 
fore, is to cut the cable and send the ship of state adrift. It 
is revolution, and the substitution of some other government 
for the old. The President of the republic will then have 
become an irresponsible ruler ; and if arbitrarily disposed, 
with the public patronage and the military force at his com- 
mand, will be sure to fin.d a Congress subservient enough to 
submit to his decrees. 

Here, therefore, was the grand danger — perhaps more 
apparent to many minds noAV, than in the progress of events 
preceding the rebellion — of disregarding the arguments and 
entreaties of sober statesmen, to observe a sacred respect for 
the obligations of the Constitution ; and of listening to the 
blandishments of minor demagogues, equally incapable of 
valuing or of understanding its inestimable virtues ; or to am- 
bitious politicians of a higher stamp, recklessly setting before 
the multitude the elusive and dangerous idea of a fantastic 
" higher law," — which could but vary with the fickle lights of 
their discordant minds — as suj^erior to that beforetime estab- 
lished by wise and Christian men, the fathers of the republic, 
for the law of the land ; or to shallow-brained enthusiasts and 
impracticable fanatics, who followed out their disorganizing 



336 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

and mischievous theories, irrespectively alike of the precepts 
of religion and the requirements of human legislation. 

In this contest for the Constitution, carried on equally by 
the conservatives of the North, in concurrence with the main 
body, under whatever party name, of the people of the South, 
against the insidious or open assaults of the radical organiza- 
tion — it is obvious that the clearest interests of the citizens 
of the slave States — to speak of no other inducement affect- 
ing them — must have impelled them to seek its preservation. 
Indeed, they could have had no conceivable motive, so long 
as they believed it could be maintained, for the abandonment 
of a safeguard indispensable to the protection of that species 
of property held by them in contradistinction to the ordinary 
possessions of the free States. It cannot be justly denied, 
therefore, that in the long struggles which preceded the war, 
the people of that section strenuously and steadily struggled 
for the maintenance of the great principles of the Constitution. 
In a word, in contending for the security of their slave 
property, they contended for that one original and indis- 
pensable compact of the Constitution, without which neither 
Constitution nor the Union, of which it was the exposition 
and the bond, could have had any existence. Doubtless, in 
certain particulars, they may have interpreted its provisions 
erroneously. "Doubtless, in the peculiar relations which they 
occupied towards the Union — the guardians, as it were, of a 
special provision, in the faithful fulfilment of which by the 
whole country their own important interests only were 
directly involved — they seized upon every favorable oppor- 
tunity to intrench themselves with political power.' Doubt- 
less, while this attitude, on their part, made them, to no 
inconsiderable extent, the objects of jealousy at the North, 

^ Sir Walter Scott, in allusion to the terms in which, the English used to 
speak of their Northern neighbors, with whom they carried on war for so 
many centuries, remarks, that they forgot " that their own encroachments 
upon the independence of Scotland obliged the weaker nation to defend them- 
selves by policy as well as force." Note to " Talisman," vol. i., p. 250. 
" Household Edition." 



THE SOUTH DEFENDED ITSELF. 337 

tliey were themselves over-jealous of the general disposition 
of the free States, and, by pushing this sensitiveness to ex- 
tremes, helped to bring that which they most dreaded upon 
themselves. But they conceived, there is as little doubt, 
that they were always, and always unjustly, upon their 
defence. They defended themselves accordingly, and, but 
for their final grand mistake, there is eveiy reason to believe 
that they would have done so successfully to the last. But 
however pressing they may have appeared in this respect, in 
no respect exceeding the earnestness of their assailants for a 
whole generation ; however violent the tone of some portion 
of their press — in which certain Northern journals were not a 
whit behind them ; however intemperate the resolutions of 
some of their legislative assemblies and the speeches of mem- 
bers — equalled, certainly, by the resolves and the harangues 
commended by many legislative and popular assemblies in a 
colder region of the country ; however arrogant the language 
and supercilious the bearing of some of their members of 
Congress — pai-alleled, in another way, by the occasionally 
strong, not to say absolutely abusive and necessarily offensive 
language of Senators and Representatives from the North ; 
yet it must be allowed that they openly fought out their 
cause, with manliness and vigor, in the Congress of the 
nation, and won whatever they gained, " not without dust 
and heat."* If they were, in fact, responsible for certain 
" aggressions," though none, it is believed, of a covert charac- 
ter, in the protection of " unalienable rights " which they con- 

' It must be gratifying to the feelings of every true American to observe 
the manner, becoming a soldier, and honorable in a victorious soldier, in 
which General Grant refers to his adversary, in his recently published formal 
report of his campaigns. After compUmenting in warm terms the conduct 
of the troops of the United States from the Eastern and the Western States, 
he remarks : 

" All have a proud record, and all sections" can well congratulate them- 
selves and each other for having done their full share in restoring the su- 
premacy of law over every foot of territory belonging to the United States. 
Let them hope for perpetiud peace and harmony with that enemy, whose manr 
hood, hoicever mistaken the cause, drew forth such herculean deeds of valor.'''' 
15 



338 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

ceived to be in danger, perhaps they are entitled to the sort 
of apology oiFered by a witness,' since much distinguished, 
to the committee of the Senate, in February, 1860, at the 
investigation of the attack upon Harper's Ferry. The ques- 
tion proposed to him, in reference to Brown, and his answer, 
was as follows : 

Question. There was another feat of his, that of kidnapping negroes in 
Missouri, and running them off to Iowa. Was that a part of his services which 
commanded your sympathy ? 

Answer. The transaction to which you refer, is one which I do not, from 
my point of view, regard as justifiable. I suppose Captain Brown did, and I 
presume I should not judge him severely at all for that transaction, because I 
should suppose that he might have regarded that, if not defensive, at least 
offensive warfare in the nature of defence — aji aggression, to prevent or repel 
aggressions.^ 

But, certainly, there never was a war, assuredly never 
one upon so grand a scale, with which the people, in its in- 
auguration, had so little to do. This fact is rendered evident 
enough by the actual state of parties during the year antece- 
dent to the outbreak of hostilities. As if apprehending, 
however, the necessity of prompt and decisive political ac- 
tion, each party summoned its ordinary convention of dele- 
gates at a much eai'lier day in the season than that at which 
such assemblies were usually held. It is not to be thought 
that, at this period, actual war between the free and the slave 
States was contemplated, on either side of the line by the 
many, however the jjossibility of such an event may have 
entered into the imaginations of a smaller number in both 
sections of the country. It had not been out of the concep- 
tions of some, certainly, in the North ; and there were un- 
questionably those in the South who were ready enough to 
meet the contingency, if their object could not be accom- 
plished at a less costly sacrifice. But, while there could be 
no question in regard to the class in the one quarter, which 

' Ex-Govemor Andrew, of Massachusetts. 
= Senate Report, p. 193. 



FEW DISUNIONISTS EN" EITHER SECTION. 339 

had openly avowed its seiitimeuts, and had been sedulously, 
but iu a somewhat futile manner, endeavoring to dissolve 
the Union, for many years, by the aid of, perhaps, one out 
of a thousand of its population, including collaborators of 
the fairer sex — in the other quarter, there were few, indeed, 
even of those who afterwards took a conspicuous part in the 
rebellion, who at the period in question either desired o'r 
seriously contemplated such a consummation. 

In reality, the number of actual disunionists in either sec- 
tion was comjsaratively insignificant. In the South, uncondi- 
tional disunionists can at any time have been very few 
among persons of intelligence and reflection, since nothing 
could be more clear than the superiority of their position 
within the circle of the great republic of States, if properly 
protected by it, to that which they would occupy as a sepa- 
rate republic of States, each of which would contain a slave- 
holding community. The union of free and slave States was 
the bond of strength, as it should have been the pledge of 
peace. Yet, it might have seemed, on repeated occasions, 
during the ten or a dozen years immediately antecedent to the 
rebellion, as if not a few conspicuous persons in the Xorth, 
in despair of carrying into efiect their public or private 
aims while the Union existed, or else from actual preju- 
dice and repugnance towards the South — whatever might 
have been the degree of support they would have received 
from the people — did entertain the idea of Northern seces- 
sion, or of a separation of the free from the slave States. 
Expressions to that effect were by no means uncommon 
in certain quarters. Memorials asking for a peaceable 
dissolution of the Union frequently obtained a great num- 
ber of signatures. A well-known politician had been 
repeatedly chosen Governor of a New England State, 
notwithstanding his avowal that in a certain contingen- 
cy, not specified, he would be willing to "let the Union 
slide." ^ It was during the occupation of the executive 

' Ex-Governor Banks. 



340 OEIGIISr OF THE LATE WAK. 

chair by the same chief magistrate, that the banner of 
the Commonwealth, at a period of high political excite- 
ment, was substituted for the flag of the United States upon 
the staff of the State House, and continued to be there dis- 
played for days, at least, and until public notice called to a 
fact, the significance of which could not be mistaken, caused 
the restoration of the national ensign to its accustomed 
jDlace. Another chief-magistrate ' of the same Common- 
wealth, while peace was yet unbroken, had accepted, on th e 
part of the State, the present of a Revolutionary musket 
from a conspicuous abolitionist clergyman, who had himself 
declared " a drum-head Constitution " the only one worthy of 
regard — and with due ceremonies, in the presence of the 
members of the legislative assembly, in session, had wel- 
comed the gun with a formal and enthusiastic address, at 
the capital of the State; and, rather as a symbol of what 
guns might be exj)ected to do afterwards, it may be thought, 
than for the past achievements of an ordinary relic of the 
old Revolutionary TTar, " with dewy eye and trembling lips," ^ 
had actually imprinted a kiss of affection ujjon the body of 
the weapon. A very aged citizen ' of the same Common- 
wealth, of high social and literary jDOsition, already men- 
tioned as the Freesoil candidate for Governor, while the 
amalgamating process was going forward between the "VYhigs 
and the Republicans, had published a pamphlet, during Mr. 
Buchanan's administration, in Avhicli he urged it as the duty 
of the North to " take possession of the Government," 
whether " forcibly," if " peacably " the means might have 
seemed inadequate, can only be conjectured. 

These are but straws, it is true, which make manifest 
more or less pointedly the spirit of the times ; but it is 
quite certain that, throughout the West and centre of the 
country, as well as in the East, there were many indications 



^ Ex-Governor Andrew. 

' See his speech on the occasion. 

" Josiah Quincy, Senior. 



DISTTJEBEES OF THE PEACE. 341 

which did not look favorable to the future peace of the 
Union, long before Southern secession had begun to assume 
any definite aspect. Indeed, there were well-informed and 
judicious persons, who were quite as apj^i'ehensive of an out- 
break in the fi-ee States, in case of a Democratic triumph at 
the election to ensue, as of resistance at the South, should 
the turn of that election prove in favor of the Republican 
party.' It is true, that the general disposition of the North- 
ern population was such, and the numbers of those in favor 
of law and order so very largely exceeded any conceivable 
reckoning of others upon whose aid or sympathy the fanatics 
could possibly count, that the imagination of such an ad- 
venture might seem wild in the extreme. It was, neverthe- 
less, believed that schemes of this description, perhaps, were 
entertained ; seldom taking any distinct shape in the minds 
of more than a comparatively few of the more reckless, 
among the native, and a certain class of the foreign popula- 
tion, of the Union. For there were many of this latter class 
in the coimtry — radicals, revolutionists, and Red-Republicans 
from the Continent of Europe — restless, and ready for any 
enterprise, which might seem likely to promote the doctrines 
which they had failed to inculcate successfully at home. 
Others of this same description of immigrants, who had been 
the victims of foreign revolution, more rationally became 
quiet citizens of a land, in which they had found peace and 
freedom, and which they felt it both unwise and ungrateful 
to disturb. 

' lu evidence of the state of sentiment referred to — and it may be 
thoug^ht as conclusive as many citations from inferior authorities — the follow- 
ing passage is an extract from the report of a speech, delivered at a mass 
meeting held at South Framingham, Massachusetts, in October, 1860, by a 
leading Republican Senator of tlie North (Mr. John P. Hale), who had been 
the candidate of the Freesoil party for President a few years preuously : 

" The South talked about dissolving the Union if Lincoln was elected. 
The Republican party would elect him, just to see if they would do it. The 
Union ivas more likely to he dissolved if he ivas not elected." — Report of Boston 
Courier, October 12th. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The several Party Conventions for the Nomination of President and Vice-President in the 
Spring of 1860 — the Democratic, the Constitutional Union, and the Eepublican. — The 
Doings of each stated, and those of the Democratic and Eepublican Parties particularly 
analyzed 

The National Democratic Convention was first in the 
field, in the spring of 1860, and assembled at Charleston, South 
Carolina, on the 23d day of April. They came together in 
no very harmonious sj^irit. The Northern and Southern 
Democrats in Congress had not, for some time, acted with 
that cordial coopei-ation which had distinguished them in 
former times. Mr. Doiiglas was the prominent candidate of 
the party; and, judging of the matter simply upon those 
grounds of action which are obvious to the public apprehen- 
sion, there seems to have been no sound reason why he 
should not have received a nomination which would have 
been equivalent to his election by a very great majority. 
For the aggregate sum of votes cast for the two Democratic 
candidates proved to be more than three hundred and fifty- 
six thousand larger than that given for Mr. Lincoln. Had 
Mr. Douglas been nominated, it may be judged improbable 
that the remnant of the Whig party would have thought it 
worth while to propose candidates; and, in that event, 
though it is likely that many would have declined to vote, 
there can be little question that, at least, five hundred thou- 
sand more votes would have swelled the Democratic majority. 
Whatever designs may have been entertained by any portion 
of the radicals, it does not seem probable that they would 
then have ventured upon an oj^en rupture with the Govern- 



THE DEMOCKATIC CONVENTION OF 1860. 343 

mcnt, against the imposing manifestation of nearly a million 
plurality in favor of the Union under the Constitution. If 
they had made an attempt so quixotic, it is evident how 
short the strife would have been, and how complete and per- 
manent the triumph of the supporters of the Constitution. 
In any event, it is certain that by the secession of most of 
its delegates from the convention, really upon an abstraction, 
or by the nomination of a separate candidate, the South 
fliirly threw its best hopes away. In reality, they mistook 
the sentiment of a majority of the North, including a 
large body of its citizens of the most substantial character 
and influence. That majority was undoubtedly misled, for 
the moment, by the artful presentation of side issues ; but it 
required only the sort of defeat the Republicans would have 
experienced, by the triumphant election of a Democratic 
candidate (if the Democrats had acted in unison), and the 
assuaging influence of a little time, to cure the evils which 
fanaticism and selfish ambition had Avrought, so far as any 
future dangerous consequences were in question.' For, al- 
though the Republican party obtained the plurality at the 
election of 1860, its course had been like the unnatural swell- 
ing of a stream iu a tempest, and the tide was about to turn. 
The truth is, that " aggression," at length having come to 
the point of open and A'iolent outrage, had given a direction 
to the " crisis " very much in favor of the South. It had 
furnished them and the friends of the Constitution in the 
North with an unanswerable argument against fanaticism 
and its consequences, Avhich only needed a little clearing 
up of the atmosphere, to present itself in the strongest 
possible light to the judgment of the sober popular masses 
of the Northern States ; and of this return to reason, the 

* For example, the combined votes of Messrs. Douglas, Bell, and Breckin- 
ridge in the free States, amounted to 1,536,578 — namely: for Douglas, 1,200,- 
400 ; for Bell, 2'74,43'7 ; for Breckinridge, 61,741. At the election in 1864, 
the free States, besides the votes of those non-seceding slave States, in which the 
soldiery more or less controlled the popular action, threw nearly 1,800,000 
votes for McClellan. 



844 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

South, if it had wisely avoided a rupture, could not but 
have had the signal advantage. 

The dispute upon which the Democratic Convention event- 
ually divided, at Charleston, was simply about words, so far 
as it is possible to gain any intelligible idea of the nature of 
the controversy. A great deal of jarring had previously 
occurred in the assembly, in regard to the admission and ex- 
clusion of delegates, who appear to have been ujion the spot 
with an extraordinary assortment of antagonistic credentials. 
The decision ujoon the various points thus raised, tended, of 
course, to affect the question of nomination ; and the heated 
debates, in regard to the admission of delegates, and kindred 
matters, embroiled the Convention for days, before the bal- 
loting began. Mr. Douglas was not in cordial relations 
with the administration of Mr. Buchanan, in consequence 
of his ojiposition to the admission of Kansas with the "Le- 
compton Constitution." This matter, however, had been 
practically settled, by the passage of the bill of 1858, sup- 
ported by the Southern members in general, submitting to 
the people of Kansas either the Lecompton constitution, or 
the formation of a constitution by means of a convention ; 
which latter alternative had been already adopted by them. 
Nor was there any real question, between the Northern and 
the Southern Democrats, before the Convention. Mr. Douglas 
telegraphed to his supporters at Charleston, to " accept the 
Cincinnati Platform" — (which had been cordially adopted 
by the whole party in 1856) — " and the Dred Scott decision ; 
but to go no further." The restriction seems to have been 
needless. It is true, that the South held to the doctrine, that 
the territories of the United States, either in their ^vild con- 
dition, or after the organization of a territorial government, 
were open for emigrants from all the States, with their prop- 
erty, of whatever description, of course including slaves ; 
that citizens, thus emigrating, were equally entitled to pi'o- 
tection, in the territory, for their property of every descrip- 
tion ; that to exclude slaveholders, with their property of the 
kind in question — that is, by refusing them such protec- 



THE CINCINNATI PLATFOEM. 345 

tion as might be necessary — was to deprive them of equal 
rights with those of emigrants from the Free States ; that if 
slaveholders became settled in a territory, it became pro 
tanto, slave territory ; but that its final character was to be 
determined by the inhabitants, whenever they should form 
a constitution, preparatory to its admission as a State. 

Whether this view were reasonable, or unreasonable, upon 
general grounds, it was in precise conformity with the prin- 
ciples of the Cincinnati Platform. That celebrated manifesto 
asserted the right of " the jjeople of all the territories," when- 
ever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a 
constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and to be 
admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with 
the other States ; and also asserted, " as embodying the only 
sound and safe solution of the slavery question " — " Non-inter- 
ference by Congress with slavery in State and territory, and 
in the District of Columbia." This declaration of principles 
presupposes that slaveholders, with their slaves, might be- 
come resident in a territory ; and, since it denies the right 
of Congress to interfere with slavery in this relation, would 
leave the matter of "protection" to the Executive; upon 
whom it would be simply incumbent to maintain the peace, 
if necessary, until the inhabitants were in a condition to form 
a constitution. 

This doctrine had been widely denounced in the North, 
by the Freesoilers, of course, whose cry Avas — " No more 
slave ten-itory ; " and by many others, to whom the idea of 
" protection to slavery " was repugnant, excej)t as provided 
for by the Constitution, in the States. It was, nevertheless, 
as has been shown, the doctrine of the Cincinnati Platform ; 
but was, after all, an abstraction ; since positively no terri- 
tory of the United States any longer existed, now that Kan- 
sas wa^ practically removed from the arena of dispute, to 
which it could be applicable. New Mexico and Utah were 
open to the admission of slavery, if their inhabitants chose it, 
by the Compromises of 1850. Beyond them was California, 
* reaching to the border of the Pacific Ocean, years before be- 
14* 



346 OKIGIN or THE LATE WAE. 

come a State of the Union, and above them a region as un- 
suited to slavery as the domain of our Canadian neighbors. 
Mr. Douglas, as has been remarked, had placed himself upon 
"the Cincinnati Platform and Dred Scott decision." But, 
after the controversy had grown so warm that the main body 
of the Southern delegates had seceded, and organized a 
separate convention, on the 3d of May — the session having 
now continued for the extraordinary period of ten days — Mr. 
Barry, of South Carolina, one of those who still retained his 
relations with the original convention, declared, that " noth- 
ing more was required for the union of the j)arty, than the 
endorsement of the decisions of the Supreme Court ; and he 
would say, that if they would now endorse the Dred Scott 
decision^ they will be able to bring the Southern States all 
into harmony and union." ' At the same time, Mr. Howard, 
of Tennessee, another of these Southern members reluctant 
to secede, proj^osed the following resolution : 

Resolved, That all citizens of the United States have an equal right to 
settle with their property in Territories of the United States ; and that, under 
the decision of the Supreme Court, which we recognize as a correct exposition 
of constitutional Uberty, the rights of neither persons nor property can be 
destroyed or impaired by Congressional or territorial legislation. 

He added, that "the Southern wing" were anxiously 
waiting the decision at their place of meeting.'' 

Now, as the admission of these principles would liave 
been but a reaffirmation of those actually adojDted by the 
party at Cincinnati, in 1856, and would, it appears, have 
brought the Conventions once more into unison, it seems 
strange indeed that the final and fatal separation of tlie 
party should have taken place. The truth appears to be that 
the main body of the Northern Democrats, taking warning, 
perhaps, at the effect of the specific language of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act, which produced such agitation by its repeal, 
in terms, of a measure which had been already rej)ealed in 

* From the reports of the Convention, in the newspapers of the day. 
"^ Reports of the Convention. 



DEMOCKATIC EESOLUTIOXS. 347 

fact, without awakening any extraordinary commotion — hes- 
itated, and, as the event proved, needlessly hesitated, about 
the policy of giving construction, in precise words, to tlie 
more general expressions of the Cincinnati Platform. In fact, 
the resolutions adopted, by a vote of 165 to 138, were the 
following : 

Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in Convention assembled, 
hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions unanimously adopted and de- 
clared as a platform of principles by the Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, 
in the year 1S56 ; believing that Democratic principles are unchangeable in 
their nature, when applied to the same subject matter ; and we recommend as 
the only further resolutions the following : 

Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party as to the 
nature and extent of the powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the 
powers and duties of Congress, under the Constitution of the United States, 
over the institution of slavery within the Territories : 

Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the decisions of the 
Supreme Court of the United States on the qu^jons of constitutional law. 

It cannot but. be remarked, that the preamble to the 
second of these resolutions is a flat contradiction of the decla- 
rations in the first. The Democratic Convention of 1856, 
expressly announced the true and essential principle to be, 
non-interference by Congress loith slavery in Territories. 
The first resolution here adopted, while it pronounces Demo- 
cratic principles unchangeable, confesses a dangerous doubt 
as to that "only sound and safe principle," asserted in 1856. 
But it does far worse than this. It admits that differences of 
opinion existed in the great party upon whose decision evi- 
dently hung the destinies of the republic, upon the one 
point actually in controversy between itself and its adversa- 
ries. Differences of opinion upon speculative points were of 
no consequence at a crisis so momentous. But, while the 
indulgence of such differences was unworthy the one national 
party, -which held the reins of political power, and by which 
public rights and popular liberty were to be maintained, the 
proclamation of those differences made the separation of the 
patty inevitable ; and its ruin followed, of course. It was 
a fatal concession to their opponents, which conferred upon 



348 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

them, at once, the prestige of victory. Doubtless, it was in- 
tended to conciliata the Northern vote in favor of Mr. Doug- 
las ; but, like the old concessions of the Whigs to the Free- 
soilers, it gave " weak brethren " an excuse for falling off 
from the negative to the positive side of the question. 

The truth is, the Democratic party might, at that conjunc- 
ture of affairs, have resolved upon almost any thing which was 
not especially offensive to the sensibilities and morals of the 
country, and, standing united upon it, they could not have fail- 
ed to win the day. Even a defeat upon an explicit declaration 
of well-ascertained principles, would have furnished the cour- 
age and the vigor for a future victory. It is better to be beaten 
for a time, ujion decisive facts, which in their nature are last- 
ing, and come up again and again, than to be successful with 
illusious, which fade away and forever with the very occasion 
which gave them birth. It must be admitted, upon this expo- 
sition of the facts of thfe case, that the blame does not rest en- 
tirely with the " Southern wing ; " and that if Mr. Douglas' 
basis of political action had been adhered to by his supporters 
in the convention, the breach would have been healed, and 
the disasters which followed upon the defeat of the divided 
Democracy, would never have occurred. Upon the sincere 
and explicit agreement of the convention to the principles of 
the Cincinnati Platform, Mr. Douglas would probably have 
been nominated, as he had expressed his concurrence with 
that Democratic manifesto. As it was, the South was by no 
means united upon the subject ; for in the election, Mr. Doug- 
las carried, in the slave States, about one-third as many votes 
as Mr. Breckinridge, who became the candidate of the special 
Southern Convention. It is obvious, that by the united action 
of the party upon the basis suggested by Mr. Barry and Mr. 
Howard, in entire conformity Avith his opinions, made known 
to his supporters in the convention, Mr. Douglas would have 
received the entire Democratic vote, and the ticket would 
have come out at least four hundred thousand votes ahead of 
that brought forward by the Republicans. 

Here, then, had the Democratic party become sectional, 



THE FIN AX, DIVISION. 349 

instead of national, in its manifestations, if not in its princi- 
ples ; and probably in the fallacious hope of thus regaining 
lost strength in the J^orth, and of effecting a restoration of 
ascendancy in Congress, the better hope, which might justly 
have been entertained, of saving the country itself, and which 
was entirely dependent upon the united action of the party, 
was imprudently, and, in fact, causelessly abandoned. But 
the end was not yet. It was deemed injudicious to make 
any nomination, in the existing posture of affairs ; and though 
many ballotings had taken place, showing a decided prefer- 
ence for Mr. Douglas, though not a majority of the oiiginal 
convention,' that body adjourned to meet again at Baltimore 
on the 18th of the following month of June. 

The " Southern wing " thus further making manifest its de- 
sire of reconciliation, determined also to repair to the same 
city at the same time, and to take part, if possible, in the final 
proceedings, Sti'ong expectations were entertained of a re- 
union of the broken fragments ; but similar disputes to those 
which occui-red at Charleston, and even more embittered, took 
place in regard to the qualifications of delegates — and, indeed, 
some appeared upon the ground with certificates who had 
not been chosen to the convention originally — tlie " Southern 
wing " again withdrew, and the division was complete. Mr. 
Douglas was nominated by the one branch of the convention, 
and Mr. Breckinridge by the other ; which consisted of rep- 
resentatives of all the slave States, Avith the exception of 
those from Missouri, and a delegation from New York, which 
had been refused admission to the original convention. The 
former body adopted the following resolution, which, though 
vague and somewhat elusive, still might have availed, with 
a few modifications, not inconsistent with its sense, to pre- 
vent an absolute rupture, if it had been proposed at the 
delibei-ations in Charleston : 

Eesoked, That in its accordance with the interpretation of the Cincmnati 
platform, that during the existence of the territorial governments, the meas- 
ure of restriction, whatever it may be, imposed by the Federal Constitution od 
the power of the Federal Legislature over the subject of domestic relations, 05 



350 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAR. 

the same hc^ been, or shall hereafter be finally determined by the Supreme 
Court of the United States, should be respected by all good citizens, and en- 
forced with promptness and fidelity by every branch of the General Govern- 
ment. 

Although this resolution enjoined that the difficult enforce- 
ment of a singularly indefinite " measure of restriclrion " — it 
nevertheless abandoned, by neglect, those extraordinary 
doubts, before entertained by the convention, as to the exer- 
cise, by a territorial legislature, the creature of Congress, of 
powers denied to Congress itself, by the Cincinnati Plat- 
form. It also adopted such interpretation of the Constitution 
as had been already given to it by the Supreme Court, as well 
as made prudent and some might think, perhaps, superfluous 
provision for submission to the future determinations of that 
tribunal; On the whole, the resolution could not but be un- 
satisfactory to those who sought for a clear and definite 
exposition of the opinions of the party upon a question of the 
j)rofoundest interest, had the means still existed for its prac- 
tical application to any territory. But this definite exposition 
the South conceived it had a right to insist upon as a matter 
of principle, from those claiming to be the national Demo- 
cratic party, in regard to .the issue actually before the coun- 
try. As matters stood, however, the breach was absolute. 
There was no longer a national Democratic party, and 
through the gateway of division was a broad path opened for 
its enemies to enter and take possession. 

This result of these proceedings naturally threw the public 
mind into a state of great confusion. The Rej)ublicans saw the 
advantage it gave them for pressing their party dogmas, in re- 
gard to which the Democrats had shown such want of harmony 
among themselves. The scattered remnant of the Whigs also 
began to encourage hopes, that, in the midst of this extra- 
ordinary conflict of opinions, an opportunity would be af- 
forded, to rally force enough of the more sober and thought- 
ful among the people, to enable the steady friends of the 
Constitution to act a leading j^art in the election, and in what 
might befall thereon. They had no affinity, of course, with 



THE WHIG CONVENTION OF 1860. 351 

Mr. Douglas, whose position was regarded as in several re- 
spects equivocal ; nor could they support Mr. Breckinridge, 
as identified with the administration to which they were op- 
posed, and who was comparatively unknown to the country 
at large, though he had won not a little personal popularity 
in his position of Vice-President. On the whole, the time 
seemed favorable to their wishes, if returning reason and re- 
flection could exert their due influence upon the popular mind. 
The Republicans had been signally defeated in 1856, though 
they had the advantage of Mr. Fremont's supposed attrac- 
tions for voters — which they had seized upon for their pur- 
poses upon the general ground of " success a duty." With 
all their past high professions, it was evident, at length, that 
they were a mei-ely political party, with " availability " for 
their motive and their motto. The great Democratic party 
had offered^a strong temptation to their late opponents to re- 
new the struggle for political power, by the unhappy and 
apparently irreconcilable division which had taken place. 
That portion of the old Whig party which had still kept up 
a show of organization, and maintained its ancient fidelity to 
sound constitutional principle and the cause of the Union, was 
known to comprise hundreds of thousands of citizens, distribut- 
ed throughout the several States, of the most substantial and 
intelligent classes of the community ; and among them, every- 
where, were the most eminent and generally respected jser- 
sons, in every condition of life. They had stood out for 
principles — once the honoi'ed and triumphant i>rinciples of a 
great national organization, at the head of which had been 
names, among the most brilliant and enduring in the history 
of the country. Though now, for a series of years, they 
had held their ground without the expectation of political 
success, it was hoped that their evident disinterestedness 
might commend their sober counsels to the judgment of the 
people ; and might help to free such numbers of the political 
masses from the complications of faction, as to work out, in 
the end, a result favorable to the public welfare. 

Accordingly, delegates from this body of citizens, com- 



352 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

IDreliending many gentlemen of local and national distinction, 
in the South and the North, assembled at Baltimore, on the 
9th of May, 1860, under the style of "The Constitutional 
Union Convention." The gentleman chosen to preside over 
their deliberations was ex-Governor Hunt, of New York, than 
whom no fitter representative of constitutional Union prin- 
ciples could have been fixed upon. The proceedings were 
spirited, patriotic, and harmonious. Their opinions and posi- 
tion were too well known to require any special promulgation 
of political opinions. Few or many, they had long kept their 
faith upon the right, if the losing side ; and they had come 
together, in the earnest and patriotic hope of saving the cause 
of their country, at a most serious and threatening emergency. 
They contented themselves with the simple but significant 
announcement, that the sum and the aim of their political 
faith and practice was — The Constitution, the Uaion, and the 
enforcement of the laws. This Convention proceeded to 
nominate Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, and Mr. Everett, of Massa- 
chusetts, to the several offices of President and Vice-President ; 
and it may well be sai^, that, with such candidates and such 
principles, they at least deserved success. Whatever final 
guilt was incurred, these true " Union men " at least are in- 
nocent. 

The Rej)ublican Convention assembled at Chicago on the 
16th of May. It was supposed that Mr. Seward would re- 
ceive the nomination ; but after a severe struggle between 
his supporters and those in favor of Mr. Bates, of Missouri, 
and Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, the latter was agreed upon and 
nominated, in conjunction with Mr. Hamlin, of Maine, for the 
Vice-Presidency. The grounds of Mr. Lincoln's nomination 
were stated by Mr. John A. Andrew (afterwards Governor 
of Massachusetts), who had been a delegate to Chicago, at a 
Republican ratification meeting, held in Boston on the 25th 
of May. After speaking of Mr. Seward as being the first 
choice of the Convention,' and who, it appeared, would have 

* Upon the first formal ballot, Mr. Seward received ITS^ votes ; Mr. Lin- 
coln, 102 ; and all others, 189. 



THE REPUBLICAN CONTENTION OF I860. 353 

received the nomination, if it had been thought he would 
have proved as acceptal:ile to the people as to the assembly, 
the new Republican doctrine of " success a duty," so antago- 
nistic to and subversive of every time republican principle — 
coming once more into play — Mr. Andrew proceeded to re- 
mark : 

" Mr. Bates stood second, a man of blamelc?s life, who was the candidate 
of those who wished to intensify the nationalism of the Republican party. 
Then there was Abraham Lincoln, and in him was recognized by all, the rep- 
resentative of the Republican party all over the Union." ' 

How much the spirit of " nationalism " animated the ma- 
jority of the Convention, is sufficiently evident from such a 
declaration as this, from the character of the nominations 
agreed upon, and from the subsequent action of the party. 
This statement also furnishes authentic testimony to a fact, 
popularly well enough known, that probably no deliberative 
body ever came together, even in France, dui^ing the old 
revolutionary period, composed of si»ch miscellaneous and 
incongnious elements. There were Freesoil TVhigs in the 
largest proportion, and with them Freesoil Democrats, 
Native Americans, and foreign adventurers; abolitionists, 
and their lifelong opponents ; those for saving the Union, and 
those for dividing it ; professed conservatives, and the most 
thoroughgoing radicals ; sentimentalists and ideologists ; 
'• economists and calculators;" a sprinkling of delegates pre- 
tending to represent some sort of constituency, in two or 
three of the border slave States; and, to crown all, Mr. 
Greeley, of the New York Tribune — 

" Clauned kindred there, and had his claims allowed," 

as an accredited deputy from the somewhat distant regions 
of Oregon. To the strenuous opposition of the latter, it was 
supposed to be owing, that the pretensions of Mr. Seward 
were set aside ; who had by far the best title to the nomina- 
tion, and whose influence, had he been elected, would have 
been sufficient, it is most likely, to avert civil convulsion. 



See " Boston Courier " report. 



354: OEIGm OF THE LATE WAS.. 

But the outright radicals, who Avere the least numerous, 
proved, nevertheless, the most influ^tial. They were utterly 
averse to any thing tending to " intensify the nationalism" 
of the heterogeneous multitude, calling itself the Repub- 
lican party ; and they would not be appeased by any half- 
way measures. The easy good nature, familiar manners, 
and other correspondent qualifications of Mi". Lincoln, seemed 
to them, doubtless, to afford the prospect of more malleable 
material for their purposes, than the old Whiggism of Mr. 
Bates, or the dignity belonging to Mr. Seward's public posi- 
tion and his long association with statesmen of every party, 
which might induce him, once in the possession of power, to 
throw aside the tatters of radicalism, and to clothe himself 
anew in the purified garments of " nationalism." At every 
former nomination for the high ofiice of chief magistrate, by 
any party making pretensions to the popular support, the re- 
lations of bpth sections to the common country had been 
punctiliously regarded. If the candidate for President were 
taken from the South, the candidate for Vice-President was 
selected from the North ; and the nomination of a candidate 
for the highest ofiice, from the free States, was sure to be 
followed by that of some gentleman from a slave State, for 
the position next in dignity. The Buffalo Freesoil Conven- 
tion, in 1848, did, indeed, propose for both candidates, per- 
sons who were residents of the free States ; and it put forth 
a platform which jDrecluded the idea of any substantial coun- 
tenance for it in the others.' The Chicago Convention of 
1860 acknowledged the paternity of the Buffalo Convention 
of 1848, by adopting a similar course of proceedings. Both 
of the candidates offered for the suffrages of the nation were 
citizens of the free States ; which was a virtual exclusion of 
the slave States from having any portion in the election of 
the chief magistrate of the whole country, in case the popular 

' In reality, Van Buren obtained not a vote in ' eleven of the Southern 
States, and in the remaining four, 299 votes. 



TLATFOKMS NOT ALWAYS TKUSTWOKTHY. 355 

clioice should happen to fall upon the citizen thus proposed, 
on the part of one section alone/ Its platform of political 
doctrines was not in entire consistency with that of Buffalo ; 
nor could it have had the face to ask any Southern man to 
stand upon such a basis, or find such a person to accept the 
position, if it had made the proposal. This, therefore, was 
fur more than a mere note of challenge to " the slave power." 
It was the trumpet-blast of hostility and defiance to the whole 
people of the fifteen States of the Union, founded, as honor 
and justice demanded it should be sustained, upon a common 
Constitution, for their mutual benefit and protection. 

Of course, it is essential, in estimating the character of a 
pai'ty like this, to look carefully behind the "platfoi'm," 
which it might deem it necessary to set forth, for the satis- 
faction of one or the other branch of an organization so di- 
verse in its composition. The structure in question was inev- 
itably disjointed and loosely hung together. It is not 
proposed, nor is it worth while, to examine it in detail. It 
contained generalizations enough to embrace all the purposes 
of the radicals; and whatever specific definition of principles 
it placed before the public, in order to meet the views of 
those who were denominated " Conservative Republicans," 
and so as to keep themselves technically icithin the Imo, the 
ultra-rej)ublicans would have no hesitation about disregarding. 
It was a small thing for them to do, for example, to profess 
regard for the specific obligations of the Constitution, in the 
formal announcement of their j^arty opinions, however incon- 
sistent such an avowal in reality was with the very proceed- 
ings in which they were engaged and with the whole course 
of their party action. For, without such a profession, those 
proceedings would have appeared an undisguised conspiracy 
against the Union ; and they would, then, necessarily, have 
lost the support of many persons of influence, who after- 
wards found means to stifle the scruples which they must 
have entertained ; and of a large class of citizens, who, from 

' See note to p. 330. 



356 oeigin: of the late wak. 

disposition or principle, or considerations connected with 
their worldly possessions, shrank from the idea of revolution 
and insurrectionary measures. But there is no reason to be- 
lieve that any " plank " set into the platform, for the purpose 
of meeting the wishes, or of easing the consciences or the 
apprehensions of this class of citizens, was much referred to 
in the innumerable harangues of Republican orators and 
divines, or in the declamations of a partisan press, by which 
the popular mind was kept in a state of the intensest excite- 
ment and agitation during the subsequent political camj^aign. 
It was by appeals to passion, and not by the discussion of 
constitutional principles, that the contest was cai*ried on in 
the Republican forum and pulpit. It is but just, in this con- 
nection, to cite the joz'^ee de resistance set forth upon the 
Chicago Platform, which was intended to make up for all 
deficiencies or irregular provision in the popular feast pre- 
pared by the managers of the occasion, and which evidently 
must have been contributed by that wing of the comj^any 
which, according to Governor Andrew, " wished to intensify 
the nationalism of the Republican party." 

Resolved, That the maiutenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic insti- 
tutions according to its own judgment, exclusively, is essential to that balance 
of power on which the perfection of our poUtical fabric depends. 

To a large proportion of the members such an admission 
as this must have been galling in the extreme ; but, stripping 
this declaration of its high-sounding phraseology, it is simply, 
in the first place, an inevitable assent to (unless revolution 
were actually avowed) the plainest and most indisputable 
constitutional principles, and as essential to the political free- 
dom of one part of the country as of another ; and, in the 
second place, it is the statement of a truism — but a most im- 
portant truism ; and to the fact involved in its enunciation, it 
is a pity that the Republican party did not adhere. Nor need 
it be surprising, if the disregard of this salutary and " essen- 
tial" piinciple should prove in the end singularly unfriendly 
to the public welfare. For, if it is to be taken as true upon 



A " PRELUDE " TO DECLAEATION OF ^DEPENDENCE, 357 

the solemn poetical asseveration, that, " all nature's discord 
makes all nature's peace," it may be found that the diversity 
between the domestic institutions of the North and those of 
the South, Avhich the Republican party, eventually, made it 
its declared object to overthrow, was in a high degree useful 
to the maintenance of that " balance of power " which, under 
a different order of things, is left in a very uncertain condi- 
tion. But, careful as the Chicago Convention was to insert 
this national "plank" in its platform, any intensity it might 
have derived from the circumstance was more than neutral- 
ized by its adoption of an amendment to the body of the 
resolutions, moved by an extreme radical delegate from New 
York, to append to them the " prelude " — such was the musi- 
cal term of his harmonious proposition — the " prelude " of 
the Declaration of Independence. The following statement 
exhibits the history of this extraordinary movement. Mr. 
Giddings, of Ohio, the well-known abolitionist member of 
Congress, endeavored to procure the adoption of an amend- 
ment to the first resolution. The resolution, of itself, could 
have no other intent or meaning than as an announcement of 
perpetual warfare against the constitutionally existing insti- 
tution of slavery. It read as follows : , 

" That the history of the nation during the last four years has fully estab- 
lished the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation of the 
Republican party, and that the causes which called it into existence are perma- 
nent in their nature,^'' etc. 

To this statement, Mr. Giddings proposed to add, in lan- 
guage modifying, but certainly not improving, that of a pas- 
sage in the Declaration of Independence : 

" That we solemnly reassert the self-evident truth, that all are endowed by 
the Creator with certam inalienable rights, among which are those of life, lib- 
erty, and the enjoyment of those rights." 

To this, it was objected by another member, that the 
amendment was unnecessary, since the substance of the words 
was embodied in the second resolution, which read as follows : 

" That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration 
of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Copstitution, and that the Fed- 



358 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

eral Constifcutiou, the rights of slaves, and the Union of the States, must and 
shall be preserved." 

This remarkable jumble of propositions wliich asserted 
that the manifesto of a people rising in rebellion had been 
inserted into the body of the Constitution framed for their 
own government, after they had succeeded and were settling 
into a State ; and which assumed, sectionally, as a party 
principle, to assert the rights of slaves — meaning, obviously, as 
was admitted by the objector, those " unalienable " rights 
insisted ujDon by the Declaration of Independence — and in 
utter contradiction of the fourth resolution, already quoted, 
which alleged " especially the right of each State to order 
and control its own domestic institutions, according to its 
own judgment, exclusively " — did, mdeed, render the amend- 
ment of Mr. Giddings altogether needless. It was accordingly 
lost. But after various other subjects had been debated and 
disposed of, Mr. Curtis, of New York, brought forward the 
proposed " prelude," as an amendment to the second resolu- 
tion. It stands thus as the first paragraph of the Decla- 
ration : 

" When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one peo- 
ple to dissolve the political iands which have connected them with one another, 
and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station 
to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent re- 
spect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes 
which impelled them to the sepaj-aiion.'''' * 

The journals of the day give an account of the recejotion 
of this fraternal and Union-breathing j^roposition, at a moment 
so critical in the affairs of the country. They say : " After 
some debate, the amendment was adopted. The resolutions, 

* After the resolutions had been read, Judge Jessup, of Pennsylvania, by 
whom they had been reported, said that he " desired to amend a verbal mis- 
take in the name of the party. It was printed in the resolutions ' the National 
Republican party ; ' he wished to strike out the word national, as that was 
not the name by which the party was properly known." The correction was 
made. — Report in the N. Y. Tribune, of May 18fh. 

It thus openly professed itself " sectional." 



SCENE AT NOMmATTON OF MR. LINCOLN. 359 

as amended, passed xinanhnously . A scene of the wildest 
excitement followed, the multitude rising and giving cheer 
after cheer, which were echoed hy the multitude outside." ^ 
Thereupon the Convention adjourned for the day, and on the 
following morning, upon this " national " platform, the nom- 
inations were completed. The vast throng of the populace 
assembled in and about the " wigwam " in which the Con- 
vention held its sessions, according to the reports of the same 
journals, tumultuously made known its preferences, during 
the progress of those proceedings, the object of which was to 
designate, by a professedly deliberative body, a candidate for 
the high office of Chief Magistrate of the Kepublic. It was 
like the mob of Paris overawing the National Assembly of 
France. They shouted clamorously, and chiefly for " Lin- 
coln " — and, naturally enough, his supporters constituted a 
majm-ity of the crowd, in the principal city of the State in 
which he himself resided. At length, owing not a little to 
the effect of that same species of " pressure" to which Mr. 
Lincoln afterwards acknowledged himself so given to yield 
— amid this tumult of voices and confusion of ideas, and npon 
this " patriotic " and " national " basis of political sentiments 
and i^rinciples — a sectional candidate, npon such merely sec- 
tional grounds, for the first time in the history of the repub- 
lic, was presented for the suffrages of its citizens.'^ 

Supposing the " Higher Law " — which, being unwritten, 
and not committed to the interpretation of any tribunal, or sub- 
ject to the test of any criterion, may be considered somewhat 
unsafe, as well as uncertain — to have superseded, by some 
mystical pi'ocess, that positive code of prescribed principles 
which constitutes the law of the land — the j^roceedings of the 

' See telegraphic despatches to Boston DaUy Advertiser, Xew York 
Tribune, and other Repubhcan newspapers. 

- Ml'. Raj-mond, of the New York Times, wrote to his paper, on his 
way home from the Convention: " The nomination was purely accidental, de- 
cided much more by the shouts and applause of the vast concourse which 
dominated the Convention, than by any direct labors of any of the delegates." — 
Quoted in Boston Courier, of May 26th. 



360 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAK. 

Chicago Convention, whether wise, or patriotic, or "loyal," 
are fairly entitled to be judged according to the theory by 
which the deliberations of that remarkable assembly were 
evidently inspired. Nothing of the license of the " Higher 
Law " seeins to have been wanting. But regarded in relation 
to any known standard of constitutional principles, its con- 
duct cannot but be justly considered as singularly factious 
and disorganizing.^ Every species and degree of sectionalism 
must necessarily partake of this revolutionary character. 
But, gathered from all its various springs and channels — from 
high places and low — from the prostituted temples of religion 
the notorious schools of infidelity — from the haunts of se- 
dition, as well as from seminaries of learning, in which ingen- 
uous youth should have had orderly precept and example — and 
brought together and consolidated into one powerful party 
organization — the strength of numbers attained by such a 
party could have no efiect to change sectionalism into na- 
tionalism ; but could impart to its plans and operations an 
influence only the more pernicious, iii proportion as its physi- 
cal power was great. In point of fact, the Republican party, 
in its rise and progress, stood upon no basis whatever sup- 
porting constitutional principles, or measures of policy result- 
ing from the exercise of Federal authority over the country 
at large. And, since the organization had no real relation to 
measures coming within the appropriate scope of Federal 
action, it was, in effect, a separation of the North from the 
South, and consequently an act of hostility against the Gener- 
al Government and institutions of the country. It was prac- 
tically subversive of the Constitution, by seeking to array 

^ The following passage is an extract of a speech, delivered by a very 
eminent citizen of New York, the late Judge William Duor, at Oswego, in 
that State, August 6th, 1860 : 

" The Republican party is a conspiracy, under the forms, but m violation 
of the spirit* of the Constitution of the United States, to exclude the citizens 
of the slaveholding States from all share in the government of the country, 
and to compel them to adapt their institutions to the opuiions of the citizens ' 
of the free States." 



SmVIMART OF THE EEPUBLICAN MOVEMENT, 361 

tlie masses of the people in one section of the land against 
the States and the people of the other section ; so that, by 
thus obtaining mere pluralities of the popular vote, in that 
part of the country which contained two-thirds of the popula- 
tion, the whole power of the Government Avould be transferred 
to the one section, to the exclitsion of the other, against 
which the first had instituted this species of moral warfare. 
And yet the faction which had by these means been able to 
"take possession of the Government" would only represent a 
very decided minority of the whole people. For the sectional 
majority of the free States was very largely in the minority 
of the aggregate vote cast in all the States ; and, it has been 
already shown, that it obtained, at the ensuing election, con- 
siderably less than two million of votes, in an entire popular 
vote considerably exceeding four millions and a half. 
Though there was nothing more actually illegal in this pro- 
cess than in Shylock's demand for the penalty of his bond, 
it was nevertheless a highly inequitable proceeding ; besides 
being a practical fraud upon the Constitution, by violating 
its intent and virtue. 

In fine, the basis of political action of the Jlepublican 
party may be thus succinctly stated : 

1. Resistance to Congress, the representative branch of 
the Government, by factious opposition to the act passed 
by it for the restoration of fugitive slaves to their owners. 
This act was resisted by force in many cases, and its practi- 
cal nullification procured, by statutes, made to prevent or 
qbstructits execution, by the legislative assemblies of the free 
States. This was, so far, an accomplished fact of resistance 
to the Constitution also, since the act of Congress had 
been pronounced to be in accordance with it by the highest 
courts of all the free States, which alone had occasion to j)ass 
upon it.' 

' The Freesoil party, from which the Republican party had its direct do- 
scent, at its Convention held at Pittsburg, in August, 1852, declared, by formal 
resolution, that: — 

16 



362 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

2. Resistance to the same representative branch of the 
Government, in relation to the act passed by it, which rec- 
ognized the right of the inhabitants of a territory of the 
United States to determine for themselves, upon forming a 
constitution preparatory to admission into the Union, whether 
to permit or to prohibit slavery. This act was resisted, 
morally, by vehement denunciation, and practically in fore- 
stalling the regular action of those inhabitants, by the forma- 
tion of organized associations, in order to promote an irregu- 
lar and forced emigration, and by furnishing weapons and 
other means of compelling the decision of the inhabitants to 
take a particular direction. 

3. Resistance to the Supreme Court, the judicial branch 
of the Government, in i-egard to its decision as to the right 
of citizens of one part of the country as well as another, to 
remove into and reside in a territory of the United States, 
carrying with them any description of property, recognized 
as such by the Constitution and the laws. It called in 
question, therefore, that kind of property, admitted by the 
Republicans themselves, in their formal declaration, to be the 
legal possesion of the slaveholders, and that their " right to 
order and control " it " according to their own judgment ex- 
clusively " was " essential to the balance of power on which 
the perfection of our political fabric depends." 

4. Resistance, tlierefore, not only to the provisions of the 
Constitution and the iDrinciples of the Union, but to the 
conclusions necessarily to be deduced from the RejDublican 



"The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had " no binding force upon the Ameri- 
can people:' " 

That there should be — 

" No national legislation for the extradition of slaves," and alleging, that 
slavery was a " sin " and a " crime ; " that " Christianity, humanity, and j^a- 
triotism alike demand its abolition." 

Though the party afterwards modified the expression of its sentiments, in 
the resolutions adopted by its general Conventions, in order to satisfy weok 
brethren, and to gain voters, it is evident from the proceedings at Chicago that 
its spirit was the same. 



HOW SOBER TEESONS WEEE BEGUILED, 3G3 

definitions of political right, wlien necessary for them to set 
forth their constitutional opinions in express terms. 

5. A formal renunciation, at Chicago, rendered necessary, 
indeed, by the general course of their proceedings, of all 
political ' and, consequently, of all social connection, with 
the slave States — amounting, at least, to such absolute disso- 
ciation, in all respects, as was scarcely consistent with any 
of that fraternal and friendly feeling essential to a willing 
Union. 

It is impossible to regard the proceedings of the Chicago 
Convention in any other light, than as equivalent to a procla- 
mation of absolutely hostile purposes against the Southern 
section of the country. They were not, technically, a dec- 
laration of war, to be conducted by arms, simply because 
they proposed only to use the pacific force of superior num- 
bers, in order to deprive the minority of its rights under the 
Constitution. While, in one part of their " platform," the 
Republicans made a specious profession of regard for the 
Constitution, in another part they announced a dissolution of 
the " political bands " by which the sections were held to- 
gether, and even refused to be called by a national name. 
It was an attitude winch ought to have given instant alarm 
to every sincere friend of the Union ! 

It may not be easy to understand how it occurred, that 
the really sober and intelligent people of the North fell so 
readily into such an open disunion snare as this. They were 
not carried away, certainly, by the influence of great names, 
conspicuous in the proceedings at Chicago. There appear 
to have been few persons present of more than ordinary and 
local reputation, and scarcely any of national fame ; indeed, 
none of that class to which the people had been in the habit 
of looking for counsel, and as guides to follow in that lead- 
ing part which persons of distinguished abilities and charac- 
ter might seem qualified to take, at a period so momentous. 
But the " conservative Republicans " had been, in a great 
degree, prepared for the nomiiiation of Mr. Seward, well 
known as a former distinouished member of the old Whig 



364: OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

party, and whose general reputation served to tlirow some- 
what into the shade his more recent erratic demonstrations ; 
and, having been ready to accej)t him as the candidate of the 
convention, they submitted to its proffer of another, as re- 
sulting from motives of policy in which the interests of the 
party were concerned. In their present temper, they proba- 
bly did not scrutinize the " platform " very closely. " Suc- 
cess a duty," was the spirit of the day in their circle. The 
Northern masses had been, in fact, very much confused by a 
succession of constitutional questions, which it is obvious 
the majority of the peoi>le were not likely to comprehend ; 
but they were told that in those questions was involved the 
" cause of the North," and the " cause of freedom." One 
statement appealed to sectional sentiments; the other to 
natural emotions. 

Undoubtedly, one resolution adopted by the convention, 
in which the draughtsmen had exhibited, at least, as much 
power of language and skill in addressing themselves to the 
wishes of the North, as acquaintance with the simplest prin- 
ciples of political economy, made a very favorable imjDression 
upon the Northern masses. Besides the unobjectionable rec- 
ommendation of a tariff for protection of imported articles, 
in conformity with Whig opinions and j^recedents — with a 
certain sweeping generosity, they may be said to have origin- 
ated "that policy of national exchanges, which secures to the 
workingman liberal wages and to agriculture remunerating 
prices ; to manufacturers and mechanics an adequate reward 
for their skill, labor, and enterprise ; and to the nation com- 
mercial prosperity and independence." These were magnifi- 
cent promises, indeed, could they only have been fulfilled ; 
but how far the Republican party made even an attempt to 
carry out this practical system of " national exchanges," the 
history of succeeding years, while they have been in posses- 
sion of powei', will show.^ But, on the whole, tlie majority 

^ There is little doubt, however, that this nonsensical piece of mystifica- 
tion secured them a more powerful influence in the election than the negro. 



FALSE SECURITT FATAL. 365 

of the Nqi'th did not at all appreciate the impending danger 
of civil convulsion. They were sedulously encouraged in 
this false security by the RepulDlican leaders. They were 
told by those who had just made a virtual proclamation of 
disunion and war, which required only a response from the 
other side to carry it into effect, that there was no sort of 
danger of disunion or of war. They believed that the crisis 
would pass away, like othei'S which had preceded it. For- 
getting, or unconscious, that the very fabric of the constitu- 
tional Union rested upon the shoulders of the people, to be 
carried along by them, in the use of constant vigilance and 
exertion, and that without their support it would fall, they 
were persuaded to make one mighty and simultaneous effort 
to slip their shoulders out, and let it topple over into the 
ditch. 



CHAPTER XV. 

What has been shown in this Volume. — A Declaration of Mr. Lincoln, in 1S5S. — The 
Prospects of the Canvass. — " Union-savers." — The Sentiment of the Army. — The Differ- 
ence between the "Whigs and the Freesoil Party. — The Election. — How Resentment at 
the West, on account of alleged Ill-Treatment of Mr. Douglas favored the Election of 
Mr. Lincoln. — The Party of " Progress." — Young America. 

«t 

It has been already shown — 

That the Missouri Compromise Act was repealed, and 
was intended to be repealed by the Compromise measures of 
1850; since the provisions of the latter were entirely incon- 
sistent with those of the former; and a state of facts had 
arisen which rendered the earlier Compromise positively in- 
operative ; that is, by the action of the people of California, 
to which Congress was under the moral necessity of con- 
forming : 

That the Whig party, by the resolutions of its Conven- 
tion, in the year 1852, had adopted the latter measures, in 
spii'it and in substance ; and the Democratic party, by its 
Convention of the same year, placed itself on exactly the same 
footing : 

That the Act of 1854, for the organization of territorial 
governments in Nebraska and Kansas, was in precise con- 
formity with those measures : 

That the Democratic'Convention, in the year 1856, by its 
formal resolutions, adopted these principles, " as embodying 
the only sound and safe solution of the slavery question " — 
and defined them to mean — " Non-interference by Congress 
with slavery in State and territory^'' etc. 

The opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, 



DEMOCEATIC WAVEEING. S67 

pronouuced afterwards, in the Dred Scott case, on tlie part 
of the majority of its justices, proved to be identical with 
these principles ; though its determination was reached, of 
course, not upon popular, but upon legal considerations. 
That is to say, it held that, although Congi-ess had authority 
to establish territorial governments wherever necessary, yet, 
by reason of constitutional limitation of its powers, it could 
not prohibit the ownership of slaves by citizens of territories. 
This was the " non-interference " doctrine of the Democratic 
platform, and principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Act ; both 
of which recognized the riglit of the inhabitants of the terri- 
tories to liold slaves, if they saw fit, while the territorial 
condition remained ; and to determine for themselves, by 
vote of a majority, when they framed their constitutions, 
whether to come into the IJuiou as slave States or free. 

It has also been shown, upon what apparently narrow 
grounds the division of the Democratic party took place, in 
the spring of 1860. It appears that a reunion might have 
been effected, by an explicit endorsement of the Dred Scott 
decision; which would have been in conformity with the 
views of Mr. Douglas himself, as communicated to his sup- 
porters in the Convention. At Charleston, however, the 
" Northern wing " of that body — declaring that differences 
of opinion existed in the party upon this point — had resolved 
that it would "abide by the decisions" (not decision) "of 
the Supreme Court, on the questions of constitutional law." 
This ex'iix'ession implied, and was intended, no doubt, to im- 
ply, that there might be other and different decisions, affect- 
ing the point at issue, uj^on some future change of members 
of the bench. At Baltimore, after the adjournment, the 
" Northern wing " made its meaning still more evident, by 
resolving — that the decision of the Supi-eme Court, in regard 
to the power of Congress over tlie territoi-ies, " as the same 
has been, or shall be hereafter finally determined," by the 
tribunal, should be " respected and enforced." This, as sea- 
men would say, was clearly " laying an anchor to windward." 
It implied an opinion, on the part of the Northern section of 



368 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

the Convention, that the question at issue had not been 
finally determined ; perhaps, an expectation and a wish that 
it should be revised. In reality, it was casting a cloud of 
uncertainty, at least, oyer the whole basis of Democratic 
principles on this point. And, although it seems peculiarly 
unfortunate, that the future of a great country should have 
been made dependent upon a merely possible future contin- 
gency ; yet it is obvious that the phraseology thus insisted 
upon by the Northern Democrats, left the Southern men to 
infer a 'want of fidelity to principles deemed of vital import- 
ance by themselves, and which had been so solemnly declared 
and so often acted upon by the whole party, upon former 
occasions, both in Congress and in the country. Evidently, 
therefore, the conclusion was reached by those who finally 
seceded from the Convention, .that the Northern section of 
the party could not be depended upon in the future, as it 
bad been in the past, for united action with its Southern 
allies, in opposition to fanaticism and abolition. Hence, 
therefore, is the reason and the cause of a division so deplor- 
able in its ultimate consequences. 

The Whig party stood before the country, at this crisis, 
in the attitude indicated by the motto it had adopted — " The 
Constitution, the Union, and the Enforcement of the'Laws." 
Doubless much diversity of opinion existed among its mem- 
bers, in reference to some of the legislation of Congress upon 
the vexed questions at issue, and in relation to the decision 
of the Supreme Court. But they were, in general, of that 
class of citizens who uphold "law and order;" who are 
obedient to the laws, as they exist ; and who resort only to 
legitimate means for any change in such measures of legis- 
lation as may seem to them objectionable. 

The position of the Republican party has been sufficiently 
exhibited. Its candidate, Mr. Andrew remarked at the rati- 
fication meeting in Boston, was " the representative of the 
Republican party all over the Union" — that is to say, of 
course, in those States in which a Republican party liad any 
existence. He was best known as the antagonist of Mr. 



WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN AS PATEIOTS. 369 

Douglas, during- a protracted canvass of the State of Illinois, 
in the year 1858, in which tlie latter had proved the success- 
ful competitor for the Senatorship of the United States, 
which was the prize actually at stake. He was, like his 
party, opposed to the fugitive slave law, and had expressed 
his opinions Avith- much freedom, and without much respect- 
ful consideration, in refei-ence to the Supreme Court. He 
had been in advance of Mr. Seward, also, in regard to the 
" irrepressible conflict " doctrine. In this particular, he had 
assumed a position in direct antagonism to the exhortations 
of Washington, in the Farewell Address. The Father of 
his Country saw that there was danger of the formation of 
"geographical" parties, and had warned his countrymen 
of their deadly influence against the Union. Mr. Lincoln, 
on the other hand, finding a " geographical" party in the jaro- 
cess of formation, allowed himself to be placed at its head, 
and encouraged its action, by the inevitable sectional and 
disorganizing declaration — " I believe this Government can- 
not permanently endure half slave and half free." ' It need 
hardly be said, that this allegation was contradicted by the 
experience of eighty years ; or, that it was the assumption 
of a fact, beforehand, which could only become one, in 
reality, by the exertions of the very persons who assumed it 
and were laboring to bring it about. 

The order of the great battle to ensue was thus marked 
out. But it was obvious, at once, that the vote of the South- 
ern States would be completely neutralized, by the existing 
posture of affairs, and that the actual contest would take 
place in the North. For Avhile Mr. Breckinridge would 
receive the vote of the party in those States represented by 
the seceding convention, Mr. Bell, an eminent citizen of 
a slaveholding State, on the same ticket with Mr. Everett, 
who enjoyed the highest reputation at the Soixth as well as 
the North, would carry what remained of the old Whig 

* In a speech to the Convention which nominated him for Senator, deliv- 
ered at Springfield, IlUnois, June 17th, 1858. 
16* 



370 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

vote, and Mr, Douglas could not fail of obtaining a certain 
support, from that wing of his own party in the slave States, 
which was either sufficiently satisfied with his position, or 
averse to the contemplation of extreme measures.^ This 
situation of affairs was clearly the result of the separation 
between the two branches of the Democratic party ; and the 
Republicans, in the control of a powerful organization in the 
free States, addressed themselves chiefly to combat the pre- 
tensions of Mr. Douglas, who was their most formidable 
antagonist in that quarter. It was plain enough, considering 
Mr. Breckinridge's position, as the rej)resentative of the 
especial " Southern wing " of the Democracy, and the actual 
condition of the j^arty, that the support to be reckoned upon 
for him, in the North, would be comparatively small. The 
Pennsylvanian Democrats, in fact, cast nearly two-thirds of 
all the votes given for him in that quarter. 

The support which the Bell and Everett ticket was likely 
to receive would come from the more staid and thoughtful 
class of citizens ; men of fixed principles and settled charac- 
ter; deeply impressed with a sense of the impending dangers 
to republican institutions ; heartily, and from the sincerest 
sentiments and emotions of patriotism, devoted to the cause 
of the Union. They were neither partisans nor fanatics; but 
upright, intelligent, and independent voters, acting under 
no impulse of temporary excitement, but, upon consideration 
and conviction, for the permanent welfare of the whole united 
country, as the foundations of its civil fabric had been estab- 
lished by the fathers of the republic, after the grand struggle 
by which they won" the right of self-government, with that 

^ This proved to be the fact : Mr. Breckinridge receiving in those States, 
510,811 votes; Mr. Bell, 514,193; and Mr. Douglas, 165,595. Mr. Breckin- 
ridge obtained the electoral vote of all the slave States, except of Virginia, 
Tennessee, and Kentucky, which were given to Mr. Bell ; and of Missouri, which, 
with that of New Jersey, was cast for Mr. Douglas. But as neither of these candi- 
dates obtained the electoral vote of any Northern State, except New Jersey, it 
is obvious that the part taken in the election by the South had actually no 
effect upon it whatever. 



THE CONSTITUTIOlSrAL tTNION CANDIDATES. 371 

wisdom and magnanimity calculated to render it secure. 
Unquestionably, their lioj^e was, at a moment judged by 
tliem one fraught with imminent peril to the common cause, 
to present such a steady front, in the gap between contend- 
ing factions, as should form a safe rallying-point, round which 
the friends of the Constitution and Union could assemble, in 
any unforeseen contingency which might finally arise. No 
nobler or more disinterested body of citizens ever exerted 
their best energies — as such men too often have done, 
unsuccessfully, in all ages — to save a sinking land. Their 
immediate apprehensions jDointed to the political triumph of a 
" geographical " party, in the reasonable foresight of the 
unhappy consequences only too certain to ensue. There was 
much reason to believe, at least for a considerable period pre- 
ceding the dread November day which was to decide the 
fortunes of the country, that there would be a failure to 
choose a majority of electors for any one candidate, by the 
popular vote. In this event, the choice would fall to the 
House of Representatives, and there the prosjDCcts of their 
own candidates would be decidedly the best. For there was 
there, undoubtedly, a " conservative " majority in that branch 
of Congress, as in the other. That such an unexceptionable 
result as this would tend to i\\e pacification of the country, 
there could be no reasonable doubt. For the candidates 
proposed by the Constitutional Union Convention were 
familiarly known by reputation throughout the Union ; and 
that reputation was such as to inspire public confidence, how- 
ever party considerations might deprive them of the general 
popular support at the polls. They were committed to the 
extremists of neither section, and their election could furnish 
no plausible ground of ofience either to the one side or the 
other. The more conspicuous members of this organization, 
in every State of the Union, were men of that style of char- 
acter which, under ordinary circumstances, would have in- 
sured for their earnest appeals to the people an influence 
which was too often exercised, at the time, by persons of 
certainly a different turn of mind, a different order of ability, 



372 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

and, in too many instances, of a very different repute. 
Indeed, the Constitutional Union men appear to have been 
the only party who really understood the situation ; who 
truly foreboded the gathering shadows of coming ills, and 
who placed themselves in the best possible position to meet 
the emergency with wisdom and fortitude, and to act the 
great part of averting such calamities from the country they 
loved, if to avert them should prove to be in their powei-. 
Their radical contemporaries designated them as "Union- 
savers" — a title which indelibly stamps the character of 
their position and vindicates itself. Though imposed by way 
of mockery and derision, it honorably marked the distinc- 
tion between themselves and those careless or incredulous as 
to i^erils of the Union, which events, shortly to occur, showed 
whether vainly imagined, or worthy of the profoundest care. 
After secession began, however, and the war was actually 
in progress, those who had been most forward in scoffing at 
their fellow-citizens as "Union-savers," now often assailed 
them as " secessionists," and even as " traitors." They 
finally insi.^ted upon calling themselves " Union men " — or, 
as it might have been retorted upon them, had they been 
supposed sincere, " Union-savers " — as soon as it became evi- 
dent that only ^V^ the name of the Union could the rebellion 
be ptit down. Naturally enough, the old staunch supporters 
of the Union under the a^gis of the Constitution stood some- 
Avhat aloof from an administration, through the election of 
which the very evils which they predicted had come to pass ; 
at least, until they could see clearly whether the essential 
principles of civil freedom were to be saved or lost in the 
conflict.' For certain it is, that whatever else the sectional 

^ Yet, it is believed, that the main body of the army, including officei'S and 
men, especially at the earlier period of the war, and those, too, constituting 
its most efficient force, in both respects, were actuated by the same principles. 
Their hope and purpose was to bring the war to a speedy conclusion, so that 
the rights of the Union, and of every part of the Union, should be maintained. 
In this they were thwarted by the managers of the sectional party, who had 
no disposition to end the war until their own ulterior objects might be accom- 



THE KEPUBLICANS REVOLUTIONISTS. 373 

organization may have been, it was not for the Union accord- 
ing to the Constitution ; or in conformity with the injunctions 
of the Farewell Address ; or in corresj^ondence with the uni- 
form teachings of every leading statesman of whatever party, 
in the past, from the beginning of the Government until the 
*' geographical " party took its rise. However the attempt may 
be made to disguise the fact, they were revolutionists in de- 
sign and in act. Hence, the question may yet remain to be set- 
tled, whether, merely to have kept the Republic together in 
form, should it prove to have been by a practical subversion 
of the Constitution, is to have preserved it as it was delivered 
to us by oui* fathers, or to make it answer any of its original 
ends. 

But notwithstanding those party sneers, it was impossible 
that such a body of Whigs, evidently actuated by such gener^ 
ous motives, should not enjoy the real respect of all classes of 
their more candid opjionents. From these they often extolled 
apparently ingenuous, if reluctant admiration ; while to others 
their steadiness to a position, in which there was probably 
nothing personal to gain, was altogether unintelligible. The 
adherents of Mr. Douglas were solicitous of their support ; and 
it seems likely now, that by unitmg with that section of the 
Democratic party, they would have made his election sure, 
and have helped to reconstruct an invincible conservative 
organization. But the actual turn of aifairs was hid behind 
the darkness of the future, and many of the " old Whigs " 
felt that they could not take such a course at that period, 
without, if not a forfeiture of recognized principle, yet an 

plished, namely : the abolition of slavery and the reduction of the South to 
an inferior condition. It was on this ground that General McClellan, who rep- 
resented the conservative body of the people, and who would have jDrought 
the war to a very early period, had he not been deprived of the necessary 
troops, and been otherwise embarrassed by the administration, was eventually 
removed from command. This fact, also, accounts for the great popular vote 
thrown for him at the election of 1864, by which he would undoubtedly 
have been chosen, but for the use of means which the administration alone 
had at its disposition. 



374 OEiGEsr OF the late wae. 

abandonment of a position natural to tliem, and in which they 
might hope to render signal service in the progress of affairs.^ 
Their former Whig associates, now incorporated with the Re- 
publican party, admitting its radical tendencies, urged them to 
follow the fashion, and submit to the process of decaudation, 
in order to infuse a more conservative element into the body 
of that singularly compounded mass of political materials. 
But it was evident that the principles of the Conservatives, 
who were already in cooperation with it, exercised very little 
influence, if any, over its general action, and that they, too, 
would be like 

" The drop 



That in the ocean seeks another drop," 

borne headlong downward upon the swellings of the unre- 
turning tide. They maintained their stand, therefore, to the 
last ; and after the election and during the war, when merely 
political questions of ordinary interest were absorbed in the 
grand issue of the restoration of the Union, they acted gen- 
erally in concert with the main body of the Democrats con- 
stituting that organization, to which Mr. Everett afterwards 
desired to affix the title of " the President's opposition ; " 
though they and their associates probably preferred the style 
of the- people's opposition, as more conformable to the nature 
and objects of republican institutions. The principles of 
these men must now prevail, if we would have the constitu- 
tional Union restored. 

Owing to the various causes which have been thus ex- 
plained in sufficient detail, the election finally turned in favor 
of the Republican party. That party owed its rise and prog- 
ress to hostility to that one vital guaranty of the Constitu- 
tion, without which neither Constitution nor Union could 
have had any being. It did not begin, however, with aboli- 
tion, which actually made no perceptible progress for a period 

' In New York and New- Jersey, however, the Whigs deemed it more Ju- 
dicious to unite with the Douglas men, and,. accordingly, the Bell and Everett 
ticket received no support in those States. 



DISTIN^CTION BETWEEN WHIGS AND EEPUBLICANS. 375 

of not far from a quarter of a century. From tbe fliction 
whicli had cTeyoted itself so fruitlessly to that object, the 
" Liberty pai'ty " was an oifshoot ; diiferiug from it only in 
pi-ofessing to oppose slavery just so far as it was not guarded 
by the limitations of the Constitution ; while the professed 
abolitionists sought the overthrow of the Constitution, or 
the separation of the free from the slave States, in despair of 
accomplishing the direct purpose which they had in view. It 
was, in effect, however, but the difference between those who 
seek an unlawful object by undisguised means, and those who, 
claiming the protection of the law and professing obedience 
to its requirements, make use of every indirect means to render 
the law nugatory, and means necessarily tending to precisely 
the same result sought by the others. A wide distinction is 
also to be observed between the " Liberty party " and its 
several successors, the " Freesoil " and " Republican " parties, 
on the one hand, and the old WTiig party on the other, so 
long as that maintained its powerful national organization.; 
although the latter also opposed the extension of slavery ; 
and so far would seem to have stood on the same basis with 
the " Freesoil " fiction. But the Whigs considered the ques- 
tion of the Union paramount to all others ; and though oppo- 
sition to the extension of slavery was with them a principle, 
it was neither their sole principle, nor one regarded by tliem 
of such vital moment as the preservation of the civil institu- 
tions of the country, with their inestimable and unexampled 
blessings and privileges, enjoyed by all classes of citizens. 
If the Whigs happened to be outvoted, therefore, their con- 
sciences were sufficiently satisfied by the faithful discharge 
of their own duty ; and even if one or more slave States 
should be added to the Union, they thought it could be of no 
positive detriment to the general welflire, at the time ; while 
it was sure to be more than counterbalanced by the addition 
of free States in the end. The " cause of freedom " would 
thus be substantially maintained, and the republic be pre- 
served in its original integrity. The general sentiment of the 
party was, that the negro himself, however otherwise it might 



376 OKIGm OF THE LATE WAu/ 

he in individual instances, was, in general, benefited instead 
of injured by the condition in which he was placed. 

The Liberty" party, and the Freesoil party after them, on 
the contrary, pursued but the " one idea." They were not 
behind the abolitionists themselves in manifesting their repug- 
nance to slavery ; regardless of the fact, that whether evil or 
good in itself considered, it was, nevertheless, an institution 
of the country, under the guarantees of its Constitution, but 
localized in a separate section of the country ; and that it 
was one for which, as it existed, they had no legal or moral 
responsibility. Throwing aside all other considerations, there- 
fore, under the impulse of the " one idea,"' they sought every 
opportunity to exhibit their hostility to slavery, under all 
circumstances, no matter what consequences might ensue. 

A sense of this distinction between the principles of their 
ancient and honored political organization, and those of the 
Freesoilers which had so long been a subject of reproach 
among them, ought to have preserved such Whigs as were 
not ready to join hands with the outright abolitionists, from 
uniting, on any pretence whatever, with a " geographical " 
party. The Republicans assumed this attitude in the elec- 
tion of 1856. They nominated merely sectional candidates 
on that occasion. They denounced slavery, in comj)any with 
" polyg'^i^y?" ^s " twin relics of barbarism " — though one of 
the twins has been permitted to grow up and flourish ever 
since.^ In the concluding resolution adopted by them, they 
gave due prominence to the "one idea," by inviting "the 
men of all pai'ties, however different J^rom us in other respects, 
in support of the principles herein declared;" so many of 
which, it may be remarked, involving personal rights of a 
variety of descriptions, have been so utterly and notoriously 
violated, since the paity came into power, that probably they 

' The Republican Congress did provide an act (July 1, 1862), " To punish 
and prevent the practice of polygamy ia the Territories of the United States, 
and other places within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States," 
imposing fine and imprisonment as the penalty ; but no instance of its enforce- 
ment has been made known. 



DISCONTENT OF THE WESTERN STATES. 377 

were not afterwards the subject of clue study by the admmis- 
tration and its agents. On that occasion, for the first time, did 
the party exhibit any formidable poj^ular strength. Un- 
questionably, many persons were then betrayed into its sup- 
port by the subterfuge of nominating Mr. Fremont, who had 
no known alliance with that faction, and whose sympathies 
with it, never thought to have been very strong, were doubt- 
less awakened for the occasion. But he was pitched upon, 
under certain well-known influences, simply as a candidate, 
Avhose adventures and their notoriety might serve to attract 
a certain kind of popular support. The managers having 
thus laid the foundation of a party, the rest was compara- 
tively easy. Mr. Fremont, to be sure, was laid aside ; but 
they had assembled the elements of " agitation," and agita- 
tion became their cry and their occupation. Already their 
antislavery projects had widely-extended support from the. 
powerful co6j)eration of the pulpit, from ambitious orators, 
from literary zealots, from enthusiastic women, from a venal 
press. 

One other cause had contributed with much effect to pro- 
mote the result of the election. This was a very strong sen- 
timent of indignation among the Democrats of the great 
Western States, at the neglect with which they conceived the 
favorite candidate of that part of the country had been treat- 
ed b^ the " Southern wing " of the party, both on the recent 
occasion, and at the preceding period of making the nomina- 
tion for President. Doubtless, this feeling of discontent 
served very much to scatter the party in that region in 
several directions ; and disposed many of its former adherents 
to vote in that way which might seem likely to pr/Dve the 
most effectual retort upon the South, without taking into much 
consideration any thing but the immediate object in view. 
In fact, the " great West " had become, to a very great 
extent, " demoralized." In 1852, the entire tier of free States, 
in the West, from Ohio to California, had given pluralities 
for the Democratic nominees, and a comparatively light vote 
for the Freesoil candidates. But carried away by the Fre- 



378 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

mont whirlwind of 1856, the Western Whigs especially, and 
a certain proportion of the Democrats, had broken loose from 
their accustomed moorings, so that each of the seven States 
referred to, except Indiana, Illinois, and California, gave 
pluralities in that year for the " so-called " Freesoil candi- 
date. In 1860, Mr. Lincoln received the plurahty in them 
all ; and the result was similar in the newly admitted West- 
ern States of Minnesota and Oregon. This was a very re- 
markable change of front in that region ; betokening that 
" demoralization " had extended much further than was to 
be accounted for by any revolution in merely political 
opinions. Indeed, fanaticism had at length struck root very 
deeply into that soil, and the fruit of the tree which sprang 
from it was such, as could not fail to suit the most 
intensely puckered-up lips of the bitterest fanaticism, in its 
most congenial habitations. Slave rescues, mobs, and similar . 
demonstrations had much more markedly distinguished the 
progress of affairs in the West for several years, than in any 
part of New England. 

The Republicans called themseves the party of "progress," 
and addressed all the allurements they could muster to the 
seduction of " Young America." They flouted at those, as 
" fogies," who stood " upon the old ways " — though if one- 
half were true which had been reiterated upon thousands 6f 
tongues, at every recurring anniversary of American Ind9|)end- 
ence, the country had long ago reached the point of absolute 
perfection, in institutions, in intelligence, in morals, and in 
prosperity; and there seemed little occasion or room for 
" progress," except by going backward for a new start, and 
thus running the needless risk of losing what had been 
already attained. It was well understood that no persuasive 
means were wanting, to stimulate the press to zeal upon a 
side which had certain elements of popularity — however 
dangerous to the public welfare and safety its somewhat 
headlong career might seem in the eye of sober reason. 
Indeed, the one idea excluded reason, judgment, and patriot- 
ism ; and the whole course of affairs proceeded, under the 



THE REPUBLICAN A DISUNION MOVEMENT. 379 

wild impulse of an unnatural and unwholesome excitement. 
Most of the Whig newspajsers finally took open ground upon 
the Republican side ; and in most of the Northern States, 
the party carried with it two-thirds of the Whigs, one-third 
of the Democrats, and, of course, the abolitionists, and the 
whole body of those, who, for so many years, had been seek- 
ing to bring the North into collision with the South. No 
wonder the faithful of the Whigs, and the steady masses of 
the Democrats, saw that the hour of deadly peril to the Con- 
stitution and Union had come. In reality, the moment that 
tlie Rej^ublican organization placed itself distinctly upon a 
sectional basis — Constitution and Union, and all public and 
personal rights and privileges dependent upon them, in the 
North, as well as in the South, stood in immediate and immi- 
nent danger of utter overthrow. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

After the Election, the Country first awoke to the Situation. — The Conservatiyes had the 
decided Majority in the Senate, and the Control of the House. — The majority of the 
Eepublicans in the North ojiposed to all Violent Measures, besides the strong Demo- 
cratic and Conservative Strength in that Quarter. — The Majority at the South opposed 
to Secession. — Movements at the North to procure the Kepeal of the " Personal 
Liberty Bills," by Ex-Chief-Justice Shaw, Mr. Curtis, lately Associate Justice of the 
TJnited States Supreme Court, and others. — Public Meetings of Citizens. — Eidiculed 
by the Radical Journals. — Governor Andrew on the " Clean Hands " of Massachusetts. — 
The Concession required to save "War really slight. — But the Radicals determined to 
force Matters to an Issue. — Mr. "Wade, Senator from Ohio. — Mr. F. P. Blair in regard 
to Mr. Chase. — Opinion of Mr. Weed, late Editor of the Albany Journal. — Description 
of Disunionists, North and South, by Mr. Andrew Johnson, now President of the 
United States.— The New York Tribune. — General Scott. 

After the result of the election was ascertained, this 
startling situation of aifairs became much more aj)parent to 
the laopular masses than before. To those who had resisted 
the advance of the tumultuous tide, it was an hour of the 
deepest solicitude and tribulation. With the Republicans, it 
soon became a pressing question, whether to advance or to 
recede. There can be no doubt, that j-)reparations for seces- 
sion had been on foot in most, or all, of the slave States, in 
anticij)ation of the election ; and as little doubt that the ex- 
treme party at the South had looked forward with hope to 
the event of Republican success, on that occasion, as a fact 
which must afford them an argument of great weight in that 
quarter. They represented it, of course, as the climax of" 
whatever existing causes of complaint they conceived them- 
selves to have ; and as furnishing indisputable evidence of 
the pvirpose of the North to force the sectional question to 
an absolute issue, and to comjoel the South to submit to the 



THE SOUTH SAFE AFTER THE ELECTION. 381 

emancipation of its slaves. The fact remained, however, 
that the South, at the moment, had the command of the 
Senate, in combination with the Democratic members ; and, 
if not in actual control of the House, might count upon a 
majority in that branch, with entire assurance, against any- 
violent measures. The other fact, also, stood out with trans- 
parent clearness, that, although a minority party had been 
able to carry the election, owing to the divisions in the Dem- 
ocratic party itself — yet the plurality of the Republicans in 
the North was considerably less than two hundred thousand, 
in a Northern vote of more than three millions two hundred 
and seventy-five thousand.' It is evident, ujion this state of 
the case, that here was little encouragement or opportunity 
for the administration to propose radical measures, whatever 
disposition tending in that direction might have existed ; 
and, notwithstanding the indications of the election, those 
familiar Avith the temper of the masses at the North might 
justly have felt entire confidence, that any attempt to op- 
press the South, by unconstitutional proceedings, would have 
produced such a powerful reaction in many of the free States, 
as would soon have supplied the lower branch of Congress 
with an unexampled Democratic majority. It was to the 
radicals alone that secession gave just the opportunity they 
sotfght ; for it enabled them at once to shift their ground of 
virtiial, if partially disguised hostility to the constitution- 
al Union, to one in which they could use the whole j^ower of 
the Union against its open assailants, and make those who 
professed to rebel for the cause of the Constitution the in- 
struments of ejQfecting their own unconstitutional and ulterior 
pui'poses. 

It was also evident, from the result of the election, that 
the majority of the people of the South were by no means in- 
clined to revolutionary proceedings. On the supposition 
that most of those who voted for Mr. Breckinridge, in the 

' Lincoln, in the free States, had 1,731,182; Douglas, Breckinridge, and 
Bell, combined, had 1,541,218, 



382 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

South, may have been so disi^osed, though such a supposition 
would involve a very unjust imputation upon the two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand persons who gave him their suffrages 
in the North also. Yet, on the other hand, of the twelve 
hundred and fifty-one thousand votes cast in- the Southern 
States, Mr. Bell and Mr. Douglas took six hundred and 
ninety thousand nearly, constituting of course a clear ma- 
jority of the whole. Besides, it has been already stated, 
that thtee of the most powerful of the slave States — Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee — gave a pojDular plurality 
for Mr. Bell, a Southern Whig, and one — ^IVIissouri — for Mr. 
Douglas, a Northern Democrat. 

In the natui'al state of alarm at the North, for which 
many public indications furnished only too much cause, 
thoughtful men, including not a few who had acted with the 
Republican party, now sought what means might be at their 
command to stay, if possible, the unhappy course of events. 
One of the chief grounds of comj^laint, on the jDart of the 
South, had long been the " Personal Liberty Bills," so called, 
adoj)ted by nearly every Northern State legislature, for the 
purpose of obstructing the execution of the Fugitive Slave 
Act, passed by Congress in 1850. Accordingly, in Massa- 
chusetts, an address to the citizens of the State on this subject 
was published, December 18th, 1860, shortly before the meet- 
ing of the legislature, under circumstances calculated to give 
it no little weight with men of principle and reflection. The 
paper set forth, in forcible but temperate language, the imme- 
diate danger of disunion, and urged the repeal of the laws in 
question, as being inconsistent Avith constitu.tional obligations, 
and unfriendly in spirit to the people of sister States. It was 
signed by Judge Shaw, who had recently retired from his place 
of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, by Mr. B. R. 
Curtis, lately one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, and by about thirty others, of the best known 
and most respected citizens of the Commonwealth ; several 
of whom had served as its Governors, and others in judicial 
or other prominent and responsible positions. A similar 



UNION MEETINGS IN TIIE NORTH. 383 

manifestation had proved of much service not a great while 
before. That was a strong expression of public sentiment in 
the North, towards the close of the year 1859, which had ex- 
erted the most salutary influence in com])osing popular agi- 
tation at the Soutli, resulting- from Brown's midnight assault 
upon Harper's Ferry. The resentment occasioned by that 
atrocious transaction, and by various isolated instances of ex- 
ultation over it in the Northern States, had given rise to many 
indications of disunion feeling in Virginia, and everywhere 
below Mason and Dixon's line. Members of Congress from 
that quarter, as they reached Washington, in anticipation of 
the ajjproacning session, came in "breathing disunion," to 
use an expression employed by a person of influence upon 
the spot, to signify the prevalent state of feeling. But very 
large and imposing assemblages of citizens were called to- 
gether iti the principal cities and towns of the North, and 
yrere addressed by leading persons, which clearly made 
known with what strong disapprobation the "raid" and 
whatever was in sympathy with it were regarded by the 
more respectable portion of the community ; and the excite- 
ment in the Southern quarter died away. 

It remained to be seen what would be the efiect of the 
address, just mentioned, u^jon the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts, and by its example upon other legislative bodies of the 
free States, and, in the end, upon the public mind in the 
other section of the Union. It was too late for immediate 
influence, for it appeared that within two days after its pub- 
lication an ordinance of secession was passed by the unani- 
mous vote of the Legislature of South Carolina, the first of the 
States which took this stej) ; thus, to a certain extent, com- 
mitting the rest of the slave States to similar precipitate 
action, or to adopt the alternative of abandoning her to her 
fiite. To exhibit in a striking light the singular composition of 
the party which had succeeded in the election, many of the 
leading journals of the State in its interest, especially those 
which had been formerly Whig organs, seconded the appeal 
of the gentlemen referred to ; while the radical newspapers, 



384 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

on the side of the same party, opposed the proposition, and 
sought to throw ridicule over it and its movers. When the 
legislature assembled, in the first week of January, 1861, the 
outgoing Governor, who had taken the unusual step of 
sending a formal farewell message to the two Houses, 
recommended the repeal of those laws.' On the contrary, 
the incoming Governor (Mr. Andrew), in his address to the 
legislature, on January 5th, clearly made known his disposi- 
tion to resist any such change. After referang to the recent 
action of South Carolina, and intimating that if emancipation 
did not come by the voluntary action of the ma^iters, it would 
be finally brought about " by the bloody process of St. Do- 
mingo," he proceeded in the next following pa.-agraph to 
say: 

" I have searched the position of Massachusetts with all the disiii.erested 
patriotism which I could command for the performance of that duty, had I 
find nothing by which I can reproach her for responsibility for such result 
if they shall come to pass ; but I invite you to a similar examination." 

With such an unconsciousness of faultiness as this, and 
under such a lead, the repeal was unlikely to take place ; nor 
did it, though the legislature was overwhelmed with memo- 
rials in favor of the measure ; while the radicals did not 
hesitate to send in numerous remonstrances against it. Some 
of these latter formally argued the question, upon express abo- 
lition grounds ; but the more common excuse urged by the 
Republican managers, to which the party, in general, acceded, 
was, that they would not repeal these laws " under a threat." 
The case presented, however, something much more serious 
and formidable than a threat. It was, in reality, a question 
of impending civil war; and whether a justly demanded con- 
cession, on a point in regard to which one part of the people 
were legally and morally in the wrong, should be made to 
the other part of the same people, in order to avert a calamity 

^ The newly elected Governors of several of the Northern States, among 
others, New York, recommended the repeal iu question ; and some partial 
remedies were provided. Rhode Island repealed the acts altogether. 



EADICAL EESISTANCE TO UNION FEELING. 385 

SO dreadful. It was, as if two independent nations stood in 
this attitude towai'ds each other — one, having adopted legis- 
lative measures to prevent the fulfilment of treaty stipu- 
lations ; the other claiming that it should recede from such 
inimical action. For, in this one respect, the North and the 
South were in the precise relation of foreign States to one 
another. The subject at issue was a point of treaty — and, 
moreover, the turning-point of a treaty by which the original 
alliance was accomplished — in regard to a matter of property 
belonging exclusively to one party, which the other had sol- 
emnly agreed should be restored if found within its special 
jurisdiction. And the restoration imposed no hard obli- 
gation — if that were important to the question — upon the 
party thus binding itself, and which by the same treaty re- 
ceived its due equivalent — because the act of restoration was 
to be effected through the agency of a third party paramoimt 
to both — that is, the General Government to which both 
owed allegiance, and by the services of its civil officers alone. 
It was only necessary, that the party which was thus deliber- 
ately engaged should throw no impediments in the way of the 
recovery of its lawful possessions by the other ; both being, 
on common grounds, in strict and necessary alliance, for the 
mutual advantage and welfai-e. 

The Governor of Massachusetts, in his same message, 
stated the jDoint at issue between the two sections in a some- 
what difierent way. He remarked : 

" And the single question now presented to the nation is this : Shall a re- 
actionary spirit, unfriendly to liberty, be permitted to subvert democratic re- 
publican government, organized uiader constitutional forms ? " 

Considering, that the united sentiment of the entire op- 
position to the new administration, consisting of nearly a 
million majority of the whole people, was explicitly based, 
in the election, upon the express principle of upholding 
" democratic republican government " — which they alleged 
the party, having Governor Andrew for one of its represent- 
atives, Avas calculated to " subvert," by disregard both of 
17 



386 OEiGEsr OF the late was,. 

" constitutional forms" and of the spirit and terms of the 
Constitution — his statement has the effect, certainly, of a re- 
versal of the facts of the case. On the contrary, there were, 
then, several questions presented to the nation, though tend- 
ing each of them to the same point, all of which can be 
clearly stated, witliout any sophistication or misrepresenta- 
tion whatever: 

1. Shall the spirit of abolition be permitted to subvert the Union organ- 
ized under the Constitution ? 

2. Shall democratic republican government be put in peril by compelling 
the liberty of white citizens, under the law, to yield to a factious crusade for 
the emancipation of slaves, contrary to law ? 

Of course, these two questions would have more particular 
reference to that wing of the party, always the most promi- 
nent, though at first the least numerous, which finally 
moulded its action ; a party of all others the most singularly 
composed; a party of shifting hues and discordant voices, 
with neither recognizable head nor acknowledged policy — 
which at length submitted to the men of definite views and 
purposes within its circle, who afterwards procured the re- 
moval of McClellan, to prevent the war fi-om coming to a 
close, and wrung from Mr, Lincoln the edict of emancipation, 
so as to secure, as far as they could, the object for which 
they had been so efficient in bringing the war on/ But 
there was one other question which addressed itself, in tones 
of patriotic expostulation and Christian entreaty, to the 
entire organization. It was — 

3. Shall a peaceable spirit prevail, and due means, becoming fellow-citi- 
zens of a republic which professes its mission to be peace, be employed to 

^ This wing of the Republican party is described by Mr. Seward, in a de- 
spatch to Mr. Adams, at London, dated July 5th, ISGl, as follows : 

" It seems as if the extreme advocates of African slavery, and its most 
vehement opponents, were acting in concert together, to precipitate a servile 
war — the former, by making the most desperate attempt to overthrow the 
Pederal Union ; the latter, by demanding an edict of universal emancipation, 
as a lawful, if not, as they say, the only legitimate way of saving the Union ! " 

Compare this with Mr. Seward's speech at Boston; see p. 162. 



DISUNIONISTS, NOKTH AS WELL AS SOUTH. 387 

check the spread of rebellion, so as Jo render it utterly meffectual ; where)>y 
the position of that one member of the Union, already in revolt, will become 
hopeless and helpless, and she herself be compelled to return to her allegiance, 
without public detriment ? 

This Avould have been the effect of a manifestation of the 
" reactionary spirit," dej^recated -by Governor Andrew ; and 
such a manifestation would have been simply a return of 
tliose for whom lie particularly spoke to their own allegiance 
to the Constitution. It w^ould, at least, have confined rebel- 
lion to the seven States which originally seceded ; for an inter- 
val of four months actually occurred between the step taken by 
South Carolina and the adhesion of Virginia, Arkansas, Ten- 
nessee, and North Carolina to the Soiithern Confederacy. 
Upon such a division of the slave States as could have been 
easily made sure, secession could have been only formal, and 
must have been of only brief continuance. For the parties 
would then have stood on such unequal terms, that nego- 
tiation, so dreaded by the extremists, on both sides, must 
liave taken place, for the sake of the common peace and 
welfare. It would have saved civil war, with all its dread 
accompaniments and consequences ; an alternative always to 
be avoided, if reasonable concessions may avail ; and one 
Avhich, if unreasonably or needlessly adopted, is always a 
public and a private crime, of a magnitude and enormity to 
which no other affords any parallel. 

But there were those in the North, as well as in the South, 
who both wished and hoped for the dissolution of the Union. 
The latter deemed their position unsafe, in view of the in- 
creasing power and uncertain disposition of the free States ; 
the former doubted whether the " slave power " would not 
renew its alliance with the ISTorthern Democracy, and prevent 
the accomplishment of their own ambitious purposes. The 
Southern secessionists trusted to effect a peaceable separation, 
by the concurrence of the fanatical disunionists of the North.' 

* In evidence, beyond what has already appeared, to support this state- 
ment, among a mass of similar testimony, the following may suffice. Mr. 
Wade, a Senator from Ohio, made the following declarations, m a published 



388 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

The Northern Disunionists, knowmg the prevalence and 
strength of Union feeling in their quarter, knew that this 
could not be, and were willing to drive matters to extremi- 
ties, with the certainty hefore them that civil war, and in all 
probability servile war, would be the fearful result. But they 
conceived that, if separation should ensue, as a consequence 

speech. [These extracts are all made from Carpenter's " Logic of History," 
a book published at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1864.] 

" And, after all this, to talk of a Union ! Sir, I have said you have no 
Union. I say you have no Union to-day worthy of the name. I am here a 
conservative man, knowing, as I do, that the only salvation to your Union " 
(that is, according to the resolve of Mr. Wade and others) " is that you di- 
vest it entirely from all the taints of slavery. If we can't have that, then I go 
for no Union at all ; hut I go for a — fight ! " 

On the other hand, Mr. Chase appears to have wanted a dissolution with- 
out " a fight." In a pubhshed letter of Gen. F. P. Blair, he says : 

" I know Mr. Chase tolerably well. * « * When the rebellion broke 
out, Mr. Chase held this language: ^ The South is not worth fighting for.'' 
Several gentlemen of high position in the country heard him utter this senti- 
ment, substantially. He was at that time Secretary of the Treasury. * * * 
Jeff. Davis said : ' Let us alone.' Chase said : ' Let them alone.' " 

Mr. Thurlow Weed, than whom no one could be more conversant with 
the whole subject, declared in the Albany Journal, edited by him : 

" The chief architects of the rebellion, before it broke out, avowed that 
they were aided in their infernal designs by the ultra abolitionists of the 
North. This ivas too true, for without such aid the South could never have been 
united against the Union.'''' 

Mr. Andrew Johnson, now President of the United States, declared, in a 
speech, just before the rebellion broke into open violence : 

" There are two parties in existence who want dissolution. Slavery and a 
Southern Confederacy is the hobby. Sumner wants to break up the Govern- 
ment, and so do the aboUtionists generally. They hold that, if slavery sur- 
vives, the Union cannot endure. Secessionists argue that, if the Union con- 
tinues, slavery is lost. Abohtionists want no compromise ; but they regard 
, peaceable secessioii as a humbug. The two occupy the same gi'ound. AVhy, 
abolition is dissolution ; dissolution is secession ; one is the other. Both are 
striving to accompUsh the same object." 

The New York Tribune, the peculiar organ of the radicals, declared, 
March 2d, 1861, nearly six weeks before the assault upon Fort Sumter : 

" We have repeatedly said, and we once more insist, that the great princi- 
ple embodied by Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, that govern- 



SENTZMENT OF NOKTHEKN EADICALS. 389 

of the struggle, the North would be still a comparatively 
powerful government, by the side of a devastated and ex- 
hausted Confederacy; and who would know better than 
they, how to urge their claims upon popular approbation, for 
having redeemed their part of the country from its alliance 
and eufrasrements with the slave institutions of the other ? 



ments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, is sound • 
and just ; and that, if the slave States, the cotton States, or the Gulf States 
only, choose to form an independent nation, they have a moral right to do so^ 
Of course. Southern members of Congress must have had the opportunity 
of knowing the private opinions of Northern members of the two branches, 
and, probably, of those members of the administration, whose views of the 
situation more or less coincided with those of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
Even General Scott, at the head of the military force of the Union, on the 3d 
of March, 1861, the day after Mr. Greeley's announcement of his views, in his 
published letter to Mr. Sewai'd, proposed, as his final and apparently favorite 
alternative, in " the highly disordered condition of our (so late) happy and 
glorious Union, ' Say to the seceded States — Wayward sisteis, depart in 
peace.^ " 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Not easy to define the precise Points upon whicli rested the Alternative of War or Peace, 
before South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Secession. — Friendly Feelings between 
the Majority of the People, North and South.— Mr. Beecher's Definition of the Cause, 
— After the Secession of South Carolina the Breach could have been easily repaired.— 
The Leaders of the " Geographical " Party the Obstacle. — The Question really not In the 
Hands of the People, who dreaded the Idea of War, for the Sake of the Union, but of 
the Radical Party Managers.— The Mistake of the People In choosing such Men to 
Office, — It was in Contravention of the Purposes of the Constitution. 

Peeviously to the passage of the " Ordinance of Seces- 
sion," by the Convention of South Carolina, it would have been 
very difficult to define, in precise terms, any existing actual 
cause of war. Serious grounds of controversy had long ex- 
isted, and at length a point of extreme embitterment had 
been reached, between a portion of the citizens in both 
quarters of the Union. It is perfectly safe to assert that, at 
the same moment, the most friendly feelings were entertained 
towards each other by a large majority of the people on 
both sides of the imaginary dividing line ; and, moreover, 
that from conviction and habit, and a sense of the mutual 
advantages of union, and of the honor and gloiy of the com- 
mon country, this majority was decidedly averse to the 
dissolution of the civil relations between the several sections. 
But the following declaration of the Eev. Mr. Beecher, 
throws no little light upon the influences which produced 
the war : ^ 

" A great many people raise a cry about the Union and the Constitution, as 
if the two were perfectly identical ; but the truth is, it is the Constitution itself 

^ Attributed to Mr, Beecher, in Carpenter's " Logic of History," p. 93. 



THE UNION STANDS TPON THE CONSTmjTION. 391 

that is the cause of every division which the vexed question of slavery has ever 
occasioned in this country. It has been the foundation of our troubles, by at- 
tempting to hold together, as reconciled, two opposing principles which will 
not harmonize nor agree." 

Doubtless, two tilings caunot be reconciled, or continue 
in a state of ordinary reconciliation, in regard to which the 
parties in interest are determined not to agree. Mr. Beech- 
er's allegation, that the Constitution and the Union were not 
identical, was correct enough, in terms. The Constitution 
was only the framework of the Union. The one was simply 
the fundamental fabric upon which the other, the super- 
structure, was built.- They were identical only in the some- 
Avhat important sense, that a main part of a thing is essential 
to the integrity of a whole thing. But since, in the case in 
question, the part was the very basis of the whole, it is evi- 
dent that, by taking it away, the structure must tumble 
down; and, if not shattered to pieces by the fall, yet Mr. 
Beecher must very well know, what is the fate predicted 
for a dwelling-place — founded upon the sand, and not upon 
a rock. But Mr. Beecher's final allegation is inconsistent 
with the fact, that this carefully constructed edifice had 
already withstood, for many years, exhibiting no signs of 
fatal weakness, the fury of the elements without, and the 
frequently rude practices of the dwellers within ; and if at 
length it began to appear, that the "two jmnciples" of 
foundation and sujjerstructure showed symptoms that they 
were no longer reconciled with each other, it could only be, 
because some of the indwellers had been engaged in under- 
mining the one, upon which alone the other could securely 
rest. And in case such a breach should jirove efiectual, it is 
certain that no propping-up, or patching-up, can afford any 
warrant of safety in the future. 

It is certain, however, that long after secession had be- 
gun, by the act of the South Carolina Convention, the breach 
could have been repaired without much serious difficulty. 
Undoubtedly that act was in itself a cause of war ; that is, 
it placed the revolting State in a condition of insurrection. 



392 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

to be dealt with, in clue time, as the United States might 
deem necessary and proper, unless the doctrine of secession 
were to be admitted as valid.' But a cause of war usually 
precedes the final commencement of hostilities by a consider- 
able interval ; and between civilized nations, alien to each 
other, it is generally devoted to efforts at reconciliation, so as, 
if possible, to keep Christian peace unbroken, and to spare 
the effusion of Christian blood. The question noAV to be 
considered is — whether the considerable interval upon the 
occasion in question was so employed as to heal, or to aggra- 
vate the causes of controversy between States existing under 
a popular government, established " in order to form a more 
perfect union " ? 

The effect of the organization of a " geographical " party 
now became apparent enough, in its influence upon this ques- 
tion. The States of the North had thus been brought into 
oi^position to the United States, which represented the inter- 
ests and authority of the whole body of States. All but 
one of the former had given pluralities, at the election, in favor 
of the incoming administration. Whatever qualities the 
exigency might demand of the existing administration, it 
certainly required that itself should enjoy the public confi- 
dence; whereas, that part of the country upon which its 
principal reliance must be placed, at a crisis of exti'aordinary 
delicacy and danger, had just pronounced against it. It had 
been, in fact, deprived of moral power, partly by the strength 

' The allowance of the right of one State to secede, would be to permit 
that State, upon its individual reasons, or at its own caprice, to be the arbiter 
of the destinies of the whole. For the accomplished secession of any one State, 
from a union of States, would be like taking a central link from a chain ; a dis- 
solution of the tie which binds them all together. As in regard to the obliga- 
tion of the moral law, if broken in the least, it is broken in the whole. It is a 
breach of the laic. But the denial of the right to secede involves the highest 
obligation, on the other hand, to avoid every occasion of offence, and to redress 
all causes of complaint. Otherwise, the bond is no longer liberty, but tyranny. 
Hence ensues the right of revolution, to be controlled only by the actual 
power of carrying it into effect, or to be pursued, at hazard of the conse- 
quences. 



A RADICAL OLIGAKCHT. 393 

of a formidable organization, and partly by the casualty of 
a division among its own former suj^porters. But this was 
not tbe worst. Tlie question and its final solution bad act- 
ually passed from the people of the North, to the State ofii- 
cers and others chosen by them — from the many to the few. 
The disposition of a great majority of the Northern people 
was in favor of a wise and magnanimous settlement of the 
question. By far the most found themselves surprised into 
the apj^alling danger of civil war, of which they had been 
often assured, by those whom they had elected to office, there 
Avas not the slightest reason to feel any apprehension. The 
people, in reality, had very little to do with the course of 
coming events. They had been persuaded to commit the 
great question of peace and war to men mostly of extreme 
views, and sometimes " wise in their own conceit," They 
had been gradually brought, under various specious ^Jretexts, 
to elect officers of the State governments, and members of 
both branches of Congress, who constituted a sort of North- 
ern " oligarchy" — an oligarchy in which, unhappily, radical- 
ism exercised the most prevailing influence — which was now 
to determine the momentous question at stake, and the peo- 
ple must hence abide the issue. To gixe way, on the part of 
the " oligarchy " — supposing it possible for them to have 
conceived any such thought — would have been to abandon 
whatever they had secured and whatever they might yet 
hope to gain ; in fact, to sacrifice themselves, which was cer- 
tainly not to be thought of by " patriots " of their descrip- 
tion ; and although it required a great deal of time and 
management and manipulation, to bring the people up to the 
work, yet as the steps were gradual towards the final con- 
summation, the Republican party, composed of conservatives, 
probably in a m^^ch larger proportion. than of radicals, in the 
midst of doubts and hopes and fears, continited to follow its 
most radical leaders to the end. 
17* 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Mr. Buchanan's History of his Administration. — His embarrassing Position. — Unanimous 
Vote of Approbation by the Legislature of Massachusetts. — Anxious "Waiting for the 
Meeting of Congress. — A " John Brown " Incident in Boston. — OfHcial Opinion upon 
" Coercion," of the Attorney-General of the United States. — Conciliatory Propositions 
in the Albany Journal, a leading Republican Paper in the Interest of Mr. Seward. — 
Upon Motion of Mr. Boteler, of Virginia, a Committee of One from each State (33) 
Nippointefl, to consider and report upon " the present Perilous Condition of the Coun- 
try." — Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, moves in the Senate for a Committee of Thirteen. — 
Proposition of Mr. Andrew Johnson in the Senate. — Speech of Mr. Wade, of Ohio. — 
He does not " so much blame the People of the South." — Allusion to the Speech by 
Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, in the House. — Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, offers 
Eesolutions. — Extracts from Speeches oT Mr. Andrew Johnson. — Great Number of 
Memorials in favor of the Crittenden Eesolutions. — Opinion of Mr. Pugh, Senator from 
Ohio, of the Popular Vote in their favor, had they been adopted by Congress. — The 
New York World (Rep.) on the Effect of "one "Word that way " from Mr. Seward.— _ 
■ Strong Statement of Boston Daily Advertiser (Rep.) as to Popular Aversion to a "War. 
— Changes of Feeling. — The New York Tribune against a " Reactionary Spirit " for 
Union. — Resolution of Mr. Clark, Senator from New Hampshire, to defeat the Critten- 
den Propositions. — Mr. Seward disappoints Public Expectation by his .Vote. — His 
Speech. — Its Effect. — The " Conservative " Republican Joui-nals become quasi radical. 
— Statement of Mr. "Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts. — 'Mr. Sumner, Senator from 
Massachusetts, on " the Barbarism of Slavery." — The " Iixepressible Conflict." — Inter- 
position of Virginia. — The Appointment of Commissioners to the " Peace Conference." 
— Messrs. Shurz, Chandler, and Bingham. — Mr. Chase on this Subject. — The Spirit of 
the Radicals. — The Conference. — Its Propositions. 

The recent publication of the history of his administra- 
tion, by ex-President Buchanan, renders it less necessary to 
examine the course of executive proceedings, during the 
remainder of his term of office. The situation was peculiarly 
embarrassing ; for he could count upon little support either 
from the North or the South. The Executive was, as it 
were, between two fires ; or, rather, the fire assailed it in so 
many difierent directions, that escape from the effects was 
out of the question, whatever course it might have seen fit to 
pursue. The Southern wing of the Democratic party hoiDed 



ME. Lincoln's eaely policy me. Buchanan's. 395 

for non-interference, at least, with the progress of events, 
whatever that might prove to be. The supporters of Doug- 
las and Bell, in the South, and the Democrats and conserva- 
tives, in general, at the North, trusted that war might be 
l^revented by the use of conciliatory means. The radicals 
would have rejoiced at the inauguration of war, by the Demo- 
cratic administration ; but impatiently awaited the hour when 
their own influence might be felt in the direction of affaii's. 
It was the obvious policy of the existing administration to 
shift the responsibility of war, if war should finally ensue, 
x;pon the jDarty which had placed itself in open conflict with 
the South, by the sectional basis of its organization. It was 
its duty to thwart, if it could, the indulgence of any hostile 
purposes, on either side, by prompt measui-es of repression, 
at the point where rebellion had begun ; if, in the exercise of 
sound discretion, and in the possession, and by the use of suit- 
able means, such measures should seem likely to promote the 
desirable end of peace, by the restoration of the authority of tlie 
United States in the insurgent quarter. Had the active dispo- 
sition to rebellion been confined to South Carolina alone, as in 
the days of President Jackson, the problem would have been 
of very easy solution. But this disposition in the South 
was well known to be much more widely extended. On the 
other hand, the general cry of the couutr}- was for peace. To 
take active steps was only too likely to precipitate war. In 
fact, the very question which lingered along through the 
remainder of Mr. Buchanan's administration, did not find its 
solution until nearly six weeks after the inauguration of his 
successor.^ Even then, matters were brought to a final issue, 
only by an ingenious course of proceedings, to be referred 
to in theii' appropriate place. 

' On the 18th of January, 1861, the Senate of the Massachusetts Legisla- 
ture passed a series of resolves, by a unanimous vote, of which the following 
is one. The House soon afterwards concurred : 

Resolved, That the Legislature of Massachusetts, now, as always, convinced 
of fhe inestimable value of the Union, and the necessity of preserving its bless- 
ings to ourselves and our posterity, regard with unmingled satisfaction the de- 



396 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

But the causes of war being now fairly on foot, the prob- 
lem before the nation was — whether their jjrogress ought to 
be and could be honorably stayed. Of course, all eyes were 
turned towards Congress, at its meeting on the 3d of Decem- 
ber, 1860, and the strongest hope was entertained, somewhat 
vaguely, it is true, by moderate men of all parties in the 
North, that the complications in which the country was in- 
volved would be unravelled by an honest comparison of 
views and the exercise of a prudent and modei'ate spirit. It 
is certain that the people, in general, were very far from wish- 
ing for war. 

An incident which took place in Boston, on the very day 
that Congress met, tends to throw a good deal of light upon 
this particular point. The " John BroAvn " sympathizers had 
called a j)ublic meeting, at a noted place of assembly in that 
city, in order to show due reverence to the memory of that 
person, on the anniversary of his execution, in due course of 
law, for the highest crime known to the laws of every civil- 
ized country. At the appointed hour, it appeared that many 
of the more respectable citizens of Boston were present in 
the hall, who largely outnumbered the sympathizers. The 
meeting was finally organized, after some verbal conflict, 
under the officers chosen by the former part of the audience, 
and though there was some resistance on the part of the 
" John Brown " men and women, which called for the inter- 
vention of a considerable police force, the meeting was event- 
ually dispersed, and the "sympathy" was expended in some 
more private way. 

Although there was much ridicule thrown, especially by 
the Republican chiefs, upon the attitude of South Carolina, 
as yet standing alone in the position assumed by her, yet 

termination evinced, in the recent firm and patriotic special message of the 
President of the United States [Mr. Buchanan] to amply and faithfully dis- 
charge his constitutional duty of enforcing the laws and preserving the integ- 
rity of the Union, and we proffer to him, through the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth, such aid in men and money as he may require to maintain the 
authority of the General Government. 



STATEMENT OF THE ALBANY JOCTENAL, 397 

thoughtful men could not but beware, that hei* example must 
soon be followed bj^ other States ; and that the situation was 
both novel and embarrassing, in regard to the j^owers of the 
Constitution, at such an emergency. The Attorney-Gen- 
eral had already officially advised the President (November 
20, 1860) that he had no authority, under the provisions of 
that instrument, to " make war upon a State or States," the 
]H)wcr having been conferred on Congress " to provide for 
calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the United 
States, suppi'ess insurrections, and repel invasions ; " and 
Congress having made no provision for any such contingency 
as this, the United States could only defend itself when as- 
sailed/ It seemed evident, however, that it could strengthen 
its means of defence, at any and every point liable to be at- 
tacked ; «and it was understood that Mr. Cass withdrew from 
the Cabinel afterwards, because of disagreement with the 
President, solely in regard to failure of action in this par- 
ticular. 

On the day preceding the set time for the meeting of 
Congress (December 2d), the Albany Evening Journal, 
edited by Mr. Weed, well known to be the confidential inti- 
mate of Mr. Seward, stated the following propositions : 

I. There is imminent danger of a dissolution of the Union. 

II. This danger originated in the ambition and cupidity of men who desire 
a Southern despotism, and in the fanatic zeal of Northern abolitionists, who 
seek the emancipation of slaves, regardless of consequences. 

III. The danger can only be averted by such moderation and forbearance 
as will draw out, combine, and strengthen the Union sentiment of the whole 
country. 

* It was held among leading Republicans in Congress, as well as others, 
that there was no constitutional power to " coerce a State." Thus, Mr. Trum- 
bull, Senator from Illinois, and reckoned, at the time, the special expositor of 
Mr. Lincoln's views, so declared in the Senate. 

It was this opinion of the matter which kept affairs in an uncertain condi- 
tion so long ; that is, for forty days after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, until the 
Confederacy was induced to begin, at Charleston, so as to put the United 
States on its defence. Congress, it is to be remembered, adjourned without 
taking any order for coercion ; showing, of course, the prevalent opinion on 
the constitutional question. — See Carpenter's " Logic of History," p. 50. 



398 OKiGEsr OF the late wae. 

Thereupon, the Joufyial recommended " a convention of 
the people, consisting of delegates appointed by the States." 
It was natural enough, it proceeded to urge, that there 
should he — though there seems to he no reason for it — some 
wear and tear of the machinery of the Government, after 
the use of seventy years ; and it conceived that this could 
be set right by such a popular conference as it recommend- 
ed. It was evident enough, from this announcement, that 
the "conservative Republicans," including, of course, JVIr. 
Seward, who, it was well understood, was to be Secretary 
of State under the coming administration, were seriously 
alarmed at the condition of affairs — which could never have 
existed but for their countenance — and were anxious to 
devise some rational means to avert the threatened calami- 
ties. Unhappily, as has been alleged at another poiut of this 
discussion, the active influences of the party were i^ot with this 
" wing " of the organization. The radicals really controlled 
the party press. Accordingly, on the lYth of December, Mr. 
Weed's paper stated, that " with two or three exceptions, 
the suggestions of the Evening Journal^ having an adjust- 
ment of the controversy which threatens to divide the Union 
for their object, have elicited from the Republican press re- 
sponses in the spirit of—' No more Compromises — i^o back- 
ing Dovrisr.' " 

It seems, therefore, upon this indisputable authority, and 
by actual experiment, that the general sentiment of the party 
as gathered from its j)ress, was averse to an adjustment ; and, 
in view of this spirit, the events of the future might be 
readily inferred. 

Soon after the reception of the usual message of the 
President (December 8th), Mr. Boteler, of Virginia, moved, 
in the House, that so much of that document as related " to 
the present perilous condition of the country be referred to 
a special committee of one from each State, with leave to 
report at any time." After other motions had been made, 
and the occurrence of some debate, Mr. Boteler's order was 
adopted, by a vote of 145 to 38. This committee was soon 



PKESEDENT JOHNSOn's PKOPOSITION. 399 

afterwards named, Mr. Corwin, of Ohio, who had been Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, under the administration of Mr. 
Fillmore, being the chairman. On the 13th of December, 
Mr. Powell, of Kentucky, moved, in the Senate, for the ap- , 
pointment of a committee of thirteen, in reference to the origi- 
nal number of the States of the Union, also for the purpose of 
taking into consideration the distracted state of the country. 
On the same day, Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, introduced in the 
Senate a proposition for an amendment of the Constitution, 
by which the President and Vice-President were to be chosen 
directly by the people, instead of through the intervention 
of electors ; and it provided, also, that at the next ensuing 
election, in 1864, the first should be selected from the slave- 
holding, and the second from the non-slaveholding States; 
and that in 1868 the process should be reversed, and so on, 
at alternate periods. It was, perhaps, the fairest compro- 
mise Avhich had ever been proposed ; for it placed the tAVO 
sections in equal relations, and would have proved, if adopt- 
ed, an effectual estoppel to all disputes'npon the question of 
slavery. But, like multitudes of propositions made during 
the same period, it eventually came to nothing. 

On the 18th of December, Mr. "VYade, of Ohio, addressed 
the Senate upon the state of the country, and in the course 
of his speech remai'ked : 

'^ Ido not so much blame the peopie of (he South, because I think they have 
been led to believe that we, to-day the dominant party, who are about to take 
the reins of government, are their mortal foes, and stand ready to trample 
their institutions under foot. They have been told so by our enemies at the 
North, and they would not hear us at all." 

It will be observed, here, that Mr. Seward's organ, the. 
Albany Journal, had just stated the distinct proposition, that 
there was a party in the North Avho " seek the emancipation 
of slaves, regardless of consequences ; " and, only the day be- 
fore Mr. Wade thus expressed himself, the same paper had 
announced that the spirit of the Republican press Avas — "No 
compromises — no backing down." Obviously, the South 
had ample nieans of determining whether the representations 



400 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

charged upon "enemies at the North" of the Republican 
party were Avell founded or otherwise ; and if the unhappy 
condition of affairs were owing simply to misrepresentations, 
surely the opportunity would have been obtained for their 
correction, and for the restoration of a good understanding, 
by some such mutual conference as had been proposed by 
the organ of the " conservative Republicans ; " but against 
Avhich, it seems, that the Republican press, almost univer- 
sally, uplifted its voice. But Mr. Wade's speech lets out 
another fact, namely, that the quarrel, after all, was much 
more between the several parties at the ISTorth, than between 
the North and the South, if the matter had been fairly un- 
derstood.' 

On the 19th of December, Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, 
a Senator venerable for years and experience, eminent in 
ability and eloquence, and beloved for his personal charac- 
teristics, offered his famous resolutions. At the same time he 
addressed the Senate in a most affecting style of patriotic 
eloquence, though enfeebled by failing health, and evidently 
overwrought by anxiety for the fate of his country. These 
resolutions provided for certain amendments of the Consti- 
tution, and were intended to comprehend, of course, the main' 
subject of dispute between the sections, in order to its settle- 
ment by compromise. They provided for — 

I. The prohibition of slaveuy in all territory north of 
36° 30' north latitiide, and the recognition of it in all terri- 
tory south of that line ; and the admission into the Union 
of any territory, containing sufficient population, on an equal 

' On the 24th of the same month, Mr. Nicholson, Senator from Tennessee, 
paid an eloquent tribute to the fidelity of the Democrats of the North. He 
said, in the course of an able speech upon the general subject which engrossed 
the attention of the country : 

" The Senator from Ohio spoke the trutli when he said that the South be- 
lieved that the North were their enemies. But he denied that this belief had 
been brought about by any acts of the Democrats of the North. The belief 
of the South came from the most reliable sources — from the speeches and 
writings of the eminent men of the Kepublican party — in which remark he 
would especially include the Senator from Ohio." — New Yorh World's Report. 



ME. ceittenden's peopositions. 401 

footing with the original States, either with or without 
slavery, as its constitution might provide. This was, in ef- 
fect, a restoration of the Missouri Compromise, in regard to 
territory, and a recognition of the principle of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Act, in regard to the admission of States. 

n. Tliey declared tliat Congress had no authority to 
abolish slavery in places under the exclusive jurisdiction of 
the United States, within States which permitted slavery. 

III. That Congress shall not abolish slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, excejot with the consent of Maryland and 
of the owners of the slaves. 

IV. That Congress shall not interdict the transportation 
of slaves from one slave State to another. 

V. That if the owner of a slave should be forcibly pre- 
vented from procuring his recovery, the United States shall 
be liable for his value, though with a remedy for the amount 
paid, against the county in which the rescue might occur. 

VI. That these, and the existing articles of the Constitu- 
tion touching the same subject, shall not be changed in the 
future. 

In addition to the clauses thus stated in substance, there 
Avas one prohibiting the foreign slave trade forever, a decla- 
ration that the fugitive slave law ought to be faithfully exe- 
cuted, and a suggestion that Congress should recommend 
the repeal of the Personal Liberty Acts. 

On the same day Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, in address- 
ing the Senate on the general questions before the country, 
remarked that he did not differ much from his Southern 
friends, except as to the mode of redress ; but " he was in the 
Union and meant to stay in it." 

On the following day he continued his speech at much 
length, and made the following practical statement of the 
situation : 

" What is the reason for disunion ? Because one man was not elected ? 
If Mr. Breckinridge bad been elected, nobody would have wanted to break up 
the Union ; but Mr. Lincoln is elected, and now they say they will break tip 
the Union. He said, No. What was there to fear ? Mr. Lincoln was a mi- 



402 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

noi'ity President. Let South Caroliiica send her Senators back, and Mr, Lincoln 
cannot even make his Cabinet without the consent of the Senate. Was he to 
be such a coward as to retreat, when it was evident that the South had the 
power in their own hands ? Was he to be so cowardly as to desert a nolle 
band at the North ivho stood by the South on prindjjle ? " 

This last expression is of much importance, as illustrating 
i\xQ princijiles of the conservatives of the North, not only at 
the time but during the continuance of the war. They were 
all for the Union / but they dreaded lest the radical policy 
towards which the dominant party was constantly verging, 
under the influence of an energetic and powerful faction 
within its circle, which jiolicy it finally adopted in full, would 
either destroy the Union by furnishing to the Southern Con- 
federacy substantial grounds of resistance, which did not 
originally exist, or, if successful itself, would leave the foun- 
dations of the Union in a condition so shattered, as to be 
incapable of answering the j)urposes for which it was first 
instituted/ • 

^ The class of citizens referred to in the text are described under the gen- 
eral designation of " Democrats," though includmg large numbers of " old 
Whigs," by Mr. Seward, in his despatch to Mr. Adams, at London, of Novem- 
ber 10th, 1862. The "cause," alluded to by Mr. Seward in the first line of 
the extract, was the emancipation proclamation, issued shortly before, convert- 
ing that struggle for the Union, in which most men at the North were agreed, 
into an abolition war, so inconsistently with all the previous professions of the 
administration. The demonstration of this " policy," which was obviously 
destructive of the Constitution, concentrated the steadfast supporters of the 
Constitution and the Union into the " opposition," of which Mr. Seward writes ; 
a party which gave General McClellan between 1,700,000 and 1,800,000 votes 
in 1864, and by which there is every reason to believe he would have been 
elected, but for the interposition of ofScial obstacles, generally thought, here- 
tofore, hardly consistent with the freedom of popular choice. Mr. Seward 
wrote to Mr. Adams : 

" From whatever cause it has happened, political debates during the pres- 
ent year have resumed, in a considerable degree, the normal character ; and 
while loyal Republicans have adhered to the neiv banner of the Union party, 
the Democratic party has rallied and made a vigorous canvass, with a view to 
the recovery of its former political ascendency. Loyal Democrats in consid- 
erable numbers, retaining the name of Democracy from habit, are classified by 
the other party as " opposition." * * * In this country, especially, it is a 



THE TEOrLE O^ THE CRITTENDEN TLAN. 403 

An immense body of memorials in favor of the jDassage 
of the resolutions presented by JNIr. Crittenden had begun to 
be laid before Congress, soon after their publication, signed 
by large numbers of citizens, principally of the Northern 
States, and they continued to pour in until the final disposi- 
tion of the question. Those resolutions were speedily adopt- 
ed by the legislative assemblies of Kentucky and Virginia ; 
both of them States of such consequence, that their influence 
"was most desirable towards the settlement of a great national 
question ; and one of which, especially, might be said to hold 
in her hand, as it were, the key to the future destinies of the 
Union. A Senator from Ohio (Mr. Pugh) declared in his 
place, on the day preceding the final adjournment of Con- 
gress (March 3d, 1861), that the resolutions had "been peti- 
tioned for by a larger number of electors of the United States 
than any proposition that was ever before Congress." In 
fact, i)opular sentiment strongly and enthusiastically fastened 
itself upon this proposition as a practicable mode of relieving 
the national embarrassment ; and it was generally hoped and 
believed that it would receive the favorable action of Con- 
gress, and would prove the efiectual basis of settlement. 
There could be no doubt that a plan of adjustment accepta- 

babit, not only entirely consistent with the Constitution, but even essential to its 
stability, to regard the administration at any time existing as distinct and sep- 
arate from the Government itself, and to canvass the proceedings of the one 
without the thought of disloyalty to the other. We might possibly have had 
quicker success in suppressing the insurrection, if this habit had rested a little 
longer in abeyance ; but, on the other hand, we are under obligation to save not 
only the integrity and union of the country, but also its inestimable and precious 
Constitution. No one can say, that the resumption of the previous popular 
habit does not tend to this last and most important consummation, if, at the 
same time, as we confidently expect, the Union itself shall be saved." 

The " opposition " had rallied in defence of this " last and most important " 
principle; one indispensable, indeed, to the very existence of a republican 
form of government, to say nothing of a Union in violation of its fundamental 
basis ! The violation of this principle, as above suggested, was the caiise which 
led the Democrats and others to oppose the " administration," for the sake of 
the " Government," and in order to maintain it in its integrity. The italics in 
the above extract arc not in the original. 



4:04: OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

ble to Virginia and Kentucky would be agreed to, as a mat- 
ter of necessity if not of choice, by the entire Democratic 
delegation in Congress ; and there was at first much reason 
to believe, that the conservative Republicans, in both 
branches, who had now discovered the imminence of a dan- 
ger which they had not anticipated under the excitements of 
the election, would act in correspondence with the suggestion 
of Mr. Seward's Albany organ, with " such forbearance and 
moderation as to draw out, combine, and strengthen the 
Union sentiment of the whole couyitry.^'' In such case, the 
Crittenden proposition would have passed both branches of 
Congress by the requisite vote of two-thirds, and the evil 
day would have been passed over in peace and safety. In the 
existing frame of the public mind, alarmed at the pressure of 
an unforeseen peril to the Union, disgusted with the position 
into which they had been seduced by the delusive promises 
of the Republican leaders, and utterly averse to bringing 
upon their country the terrible calamities of civil war, there 
can be no rational doubt that a great majority of the peoj)le 
would have cheerfully seconded such a recommendation of 
Congress. Mr. Pugh, indeed, in the same speech already al- 
luded to, did not hesitate to say, "I believe in my heart to- 
day that it would carry an overwhelming majority of the 
people of my State, ay, sir, and of nearly every other State 
of the Union." ^ Those who are able to recall the state of 
public feeling at the time, will have little hesitation about 
fully agreeing with the Ohio Senator on this point. 

Indeed, the special rej^orter of the New York World, of 
December 28th, gives expression to the current opinion at 
Washington to the same effect. His despatch of the day 
preceding is as follows : 

"The Star (Washington paper), of this evening, says: 'Circumstances 
have come to our knowledge, within the last twenty-four hours, which lead us 
to hope that Mr. Seward will, ere the close of the current week, counsel a set- 
tlement upon the basis proposed by Mr. Crittenden.' 

* The Republican majority in Ohio had been only a little less than 33,000, 
in an entire vote of more than 430,000. 



WHAT " ONE WOED " COULD HAVE DONE. 405 

" One word that way icouJd instantly settle the controversy ; dethroning the 
disunionists ^;er sc, at the South, whose power is but the result of the univer- 
sal belief at the South that the Republican party made up its mind for war to 
the knife, from the start, upon the constitutional rights of the slaveholding 
States." ' 

It is very true, tliat a newspaper reiDorter may be mis- 
taken both in regard to facts and to the conclusions wliicli 
he deduces from them. But if an intelligent reporter, and 
the Worlds at that time, a leading organ of the Republican 
party, was not likely to employ one who was not of that 
class, he could hardly make a mistake as to the opinion gen- 
erally entertained at Washington, and especially among the 
Re2m.blicans themselves, with whom he would probably con- 
fer, as to the effect — and an effect how momentous ! — which 
" one word " from a particular source, and in a particular di- 
rection, might have exercised in the prevention of civil war. 

In order to show how little such a direful event was 
wished for, or contemplated with any degree of satisfaction 
by the well-disposed people of the extreme North, and also to 
exhibit the really temperate frame of mind with which the 
actual state of affairs was regarded by that class, a single ex- 
tract from the columns of a journal, unquestionably at that 
time the leading organ of moderate Republicans in New Eng- 
land, will be quite sufficient. The following is the passage 
referred to, which is taken from the principal editorial article 
of the Boston Daily Advertiser, of January 1st, 1861, and it 
must be admitted to be a peaceable and a hopeful augury for 
the beginning of the new year : 

" The people desire no war ; no attack upon South Carolina ; nor do they 
wish to see her needlessly supplied with any pretext for the beginning of hos- 
tilities. They wish only for a fair defensive policy in the disaflected State, and 
for the active influence of the Government to be directed against secession in 
any States that are endangered. And, even now, the distinct adoption of such 

' See extract from speech of Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, on page 400. 
But it was only the radical faotion of the party which had thus made up its 
mind; and the question now was, whether the "conservative" Republicans 
would act with them, or would avert impenduig war. 



4:06 OEIGIISr OF THE LATE WAE. 

a policy would enable Mr. Buchanan to close his administration with the ap- 
proval, the support, perhaps we may add, the friendship of his most deter- 
mined opponents." 

Supposing a spirit so rational and so magnanimous as this 
to have prevailed among the moderate men, who did nn- 
doubtedly constitute, at that period, a considerable majority 
of the Republican party — it might vrell be a marvel to all 
future times, if unexplained, by what extraordinary means 
and influences a people so intelligent and civilized as those 
of the United States were inveigled or dragged into a civil 
conflict so tremendous in prospect and in progress, against 
all their interests as a nation, and their feelings and principles 
as men. 

This promising state of mind, however, soon began to 
undergo a very striking change, the efiicient causes of which 
it is by no means difiicult to point out. The Republican 
party, as has been often explained, consisted of at least two 
wings. But while the conservative portion, composed of 
men chiefly engaged in their own afiairs, looked on and did 
little, except furnish the funds — the management of the 
smaller circles, which largely controlled the political move- 
ments of the party, was in the hands of its radical and more 
active members. They were like the " clubs " of Paris, in 
the old French Revolution. They were closely allied to each 
other by common opinions, motives, and interests. Many of 
them lived by politics. Many held ofiice in the nation or 
State by virtue of the recent election, and many more were 
anxious to hold it, at the first convenient ojjportunity. 
Announcements like that of the World, in regard to the 
probable course of Mr. Seward, the acknowledged leader of 
the party, and opinions like those expressed by the Daily 
Advertiser, the organ of conservative Republicans in the 
capital city of New England, struck a chill to their hearts. 
If those were to be the prevailing sentiments, they could 
scarcely see what the party had^igained, except the short- 
lived triumph of an accidental election ; and as for the 



THE EADICAL PANIC. 407 

"Ebony Idol," wliich they bad set up — it would soon be as 
flat on its face as the image of Bel in the Apocrypha. 

The alarm was great ; but active exertions were soon in 
operation to turn the smoothly flowing tide into a much 
more troubled channel. Leading radicals, Governors of 
States, and others, hastened to Washington, with represen- 
tations of the disastrous eflect which the declaration of such 
a pacific policy was having upon the party at home ; and it 
was in the power of the radical managers to make such a mis- 
sion seem like the -spontaneous manifestation of public senti- 
ment in various quarters of the country. In tlie mean time, 
the legislative assemblies of the several ISToi-thern Stafes had 
come together, with large Republican majorities, and consist- 
ing of men, who, however well qualified for local legislation, 
or to direct ordinary party tactics, were scarcely competent, 
in all instances, in point of experience, foresight, and compre- 
hensiveness of view, to act the part of statesmen on a great 
national stage, at a crisis like the present. It was for this 
reason that the Constitution itself was made, to be a guide 
and a restraint in the regulation of national affairs ; as the 
admirable constitution of Massachusetts expresses itself — " to 
the end it may be a government of laws, not of men," Too 
often, it is to be feared, small party opinions, instead of con- 
stitutional principles, prompted the action of State authori- 
ties, both legislative and executive, on the occasion in 
question. 

In fine, the radicals Avere able shortly to present the 
aspect, at least, of a turn in public sentiment, through the 
medium of the press and otherwise. The New York Tribune 
showed itself as much opposed to " a reactionary spirit " as 
Governor Andrew himself Indeed, that paper, in a pungent 
editorial article, the application of which could not be mis- 
understood, undertook to rebuke, with much severity, certain 
" eminent men," of whom it alleged the party " had a right to 
expect better things;" "but who,"vit proceeded to say, now 
" counsel that it repudiate its platform of principles, confess 
itself a common cheat, turn its back upon those who elevated 



408 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

it to place, and convict itself of having either been a rank 
hypocrite before the election, or of being a skulking craven 
now." ' Such " parlous words " as these could not fail to 
produce a certain effect ; and, indeed, the general cry among 
the radical set now became — " Don't yield an inch " — at a 
moment when the issue depending was, peace or war between 
kindred States. At length the cue was given and taken. 
The Washington despatch of January 3d, to the New York 
Evening Post (radical), statecl, that "a committee of Demo- 
crats from New York have urged Mr. Seward to approve of 
Mr. Crittenden's Compromise, but he refused." On the same 
day Mr. Douglas addressed the Senate in a speech distin- 
guished by his usual power of argument and eloquence, and 
asked — 

" Why Republicans could not unite on that compromise now ? Senators 
on the other side seemed determined to act as a party." 

In the midst of these conflicting views of the demands of 
the situation, an incident occurred which showed at once that 
Mr. Douglas was right in his augury ; and that reluctant to 
vote directly against the Crittenden pi-oposition, in the face 
of such generally expressed public sentiment, yet the Repub- 
lican Senators stood ready to defeat it by indirection. This 
was a resolution introduced by Mr, Clark, of New Hamp- 
shire. He moved to strike out all of Mr. Crittenden's prop- 
osition, after the preamble, which had asserted the danger of 
the Union, and the divisions in Congress, rendering it un- 
likely that such consent could be obtained in the way of 
legislation as might avert the threatened evils ; and, there- 
fore, referring the question to the people of the several States 
— and to insert the following resolution in lieu of the series 
proposed by Mr. Crittenden : 

" That the provisions of the Constitution are ample for the preservation of 
the Union and the protection of all the material interests of the country ; that 
it needs to be obeyed, rather than amended ; and that an extrication from the 
present dangers is to be looked for in strenuous efforts to preserve the peace, 

' Quoted in Carpenter's " Logic of History," p. 145. 



EVASION OF THE ISSUE. 409 

protect the public property, and enforce the laws, rather than in guarantees 
for particular diiSculties, or concessions to unreasonable demands. 

" That all attempts to dissolve the present Union, or overthrow or abandon 
the present Constitution, with the hope or expectation of constructing a new 
one, are dangerous, illusory, and destructive ; that, in the opinion of the Sen- 
ate of the United States, no such reconstruction is practicable ; and, therefore, 
to the maintenance of the existing Union and Constitution should be directed 
all the energies of all the departments of the Government and the efforts of all 
good citizens." 

This, it is evident, was mere wilfulness and trifling. 
Mr. Clark's amendment admitted the " dangers " and the 
" difticulties " of the situation, by retaining Mr. Ci'ittenden's 
preamble, and, indeed, by necessary implication of its own 
terms — and hence, by a very odd sort of logic, it resolved, 
that no steps were necessaiy, in order to avert those dangers, 
or to relieve the country from those difficulties ! In fact, 
although every clause of the amendment was indisputable 
(except, perhaps, that " particular difficulties " may be reason- 
ably and justly thought to claim suitable remedies), and the 
individual statements, therefore, were true ; yet, in the gross, 
and in its actual effect, it was simply an evasion of the whole 
question. Undoubtedly, the Constitution was unexception- 
able, and had served a most excellent purpose for a period of 
seventy years ; and if " obeyed," might still maintain the 
country in happiness and prosperity for all generations. But 
the very cause of complaint was, that it had not been 
" obeyed," in the hostile legislation of all the Northern 
States against the practical execution of that 'one of its pro- 
visions, which could alone be the source of " difficulties " 
between the North and the South; and which, of all its 
" guarantees," was that one, upon agreement to which by the 
free States had altogether depended the original ratification 
of the instrument itself by the slave States. Nor Avould it 
be at all complimentary to the understanding of the Repub- 
lican Senators to suppose them to have imagined, that the 
Constitution was " obeyed," in its spirit and intent, in the 
sectional position at that moment occupied by the "geograph- 
ical " party of which they were themselves among the lead- 
18 



410 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

ing members. And, especially since the political victory bad 
not been won "by their own " bow and spear," but was owing 
to the unhappy divisions of their opponents — unhappy, in 
every sense, since those opponents constituted a large major- 
ity of the people of the common country — those Senators 
were not, as legislators, in the position of mere party leaders ; 
but, under the new phase of affairs, became grand arbitrators 
between the two sections as statesmen, and men of honor and 
patriotic principle, to see to it that the cause of controversy 
should be adjusted by a wise, just, and generous course of 
proceeding. 

The question was soon taken upon this amendment, and 
all the Republican Senators, Mr. Seward among them, were 
found to be in favor of it. The vote stood 25 to 23 ; though 
it is proper to state that six Democratic Senators, of those 
from the slave States who still remained behind, do not ap- 
pear to have been in their places. A reconsideration was imme- 
diately moved by Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania, who had 
voted with the majority ; but the question was not reached 
until the eighteenth of January, when it was carried by a 
vote of 27 to 24 ; Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, being among 
the " yeas," and Mr. Seward with the " nays." It was evi- 
dent from the result thus obtained, that it would be in vain 
to expect the necessary two-thirds for Mr. Crittenden's propo- 
sition, which was henceforth of no avail ; though the struggle 
was still kept up to procure its adoption, both in the country 
and in Congress, until the final disposition of it, on the third 
of March, the day on which the session came to its close. 
In the mean time, on the twelfth of January, Mr. Seward had 
made his long-expected speech ; and public interest was pro- 
foundly awakened to learn the sj)irit in which the coming 
Secretary of State — "one word" from whom, the World's 
Washington correspondent had said, in favor of the Crit- 
tenden proposition, " would instantly settle the controversy." 
Alas, that Avord had been already spoken, in another direc- 
tion, by the "aye" of Mr. Seward for the amendment of the 
New Hampshire Senator. The vote of the Republican mem- 



SPEECH OF MR. SEWAED. 411 

bers of the Senate was a blank denial of the necessity of com- 
promise, and showed, of course, that they had deliberately 
made up their minds to refuse any negotiation. The result 
was as gratifying to the determined secessionists as to the 
radicals themselves. 

Mr. Seward's carefully prepared and ingeniously phrased 
speech at once dissipated every hope, if any could yet remain, 
of 2jublic aid from him, in favor of any compromise. There 
is good reason to believe that the convictions and feelings of 
Mr. Seward led him sincerely to desire a settlement, and 
above all things the avoidance of civil war ; and that he con- 
tinued earnestly to hope, long afterwards, and perhaps 
throughout the whole progress of the war, for the restoration 
of national affairs upon their original constitutional basis. But 
at the moment, the Secretaryship of State was as yet, possi- 
bly, in abeyance. The inveterate radicals looked at him 
then, as afterwards, with moody brows and jealous eyes. 
Might it not have been thought, under such circumstances, 
that the unity of a party, at best in a minority, would require 
the sacrifice of a too conservative leader, however eminent, 
in order to pacify, the auger of the radical wing, already 
muttered in no measured tones ? In a word, could he attain 
a position in which, doubtless, he thought himself qualified 
and able to render the highest service to the cause of the 
Union — if the determined ojiposition of the radicals were 
aroused ? Possibly not — but he might have saved his coun- 
try, in spite of them. The speech in question, accordingly, 
was made up of many excellent generalizations, and was not 
a little rambling and vague. It would have answered the 
purpose of a speech extremely well, if there had been no 
pressing occasion for making out a distinct and decided line 
of policy ; without which no speech could be of the slightest 
use towards changing tlie rapid course of instantly disastrous 
events. It rather put aside, for the present, the idea of some 
sort of compromise, than refused it. A single specimen of 
this remarkable production, considermg the immediate exi- 
gency, may suffice : 



412 OKIGm OF THE LATE WAK. 

"After the angry excitements of the hour have subsided, and calmness 
once more shall have resumed its accustomed sway over the public mind — 
then, and not until then — one, two, or three years hence — I should cheerfully 
advise a convention of the people, to be assembled in pursuance of the Consti- 
tution, to consider and decide whether any and what amendments of the or- 
ganic national law ought to be made." . 

It was as if, when the loosening and crashing timbers of 
a dam were about to break away and give place to the im- 
petuous torrent, to sweep downwards in its course flocks and 
herds and the habitations of men — the householder should 
fold his hands, and say, that he would attend to the matter 
at some convenient future opportunity ! The question was, 
npon the adoi^tion of measures notv, which should make " the 
angry excitements of the hour " subside. 

The tone of the Republican press was changed, at once, 
upon the publication of this speech. Even the most moderate 
of those sheets saw the dawning of new light, and their specu- 
lations took a marvellously abrupt turn. The proposition, 
upon which the mind of the whole country, as it were, had 
been so long fixed, with a certain tremulous hope, and all 
similar projects before Congress, were now suddenly convert- 
ed into " complicated and artificial expedients," upon which 
" certain persons had been laboriously toiling," ' There was 
a great deal of " backing up " to be done on this occasion, 
and it was done. As one specimen of this species of politi- 
cal manoeuvring, the following Washington despatch to the 
New York Herald may serve to exhibit the general system 
of operations : 

" Senator Wilson has just returned from Massachusetts ; says the Republi- 
cans there are stronger than ever in their faith. He states, that the Democrats 
and Bell and Everett men, told him that now was the time to settle the question 
of slavery. The secession movement in South Carolina" (and similar causes 
referred to) " confirmed his constituents in their determination to dispose of 
the question now and forever. When asked how they would dispose of it, the 
Senator intimated, that remained to be seen.''^ ^ 

' See Boston Daili/ Advertiser, and other journals of the party, at the 
time. 

" Quoted in the Boston Courier, of January 25th, 1861. 



EXPECTATIONS OF THE EADICALS. 413 

The effect of a fabrication like tliis upon the Southern 
mind, at such a moment, in connection with the stand taken 
by the entire body of Republican Senators, may be readily 
conceived. In the mean time, tlie legislative assembly of 
Virginia had determined upon a strenuous effort of interposi- 
tion to save the country, if 2)ossible, from those impending ills 
which now presented themselves to the public vision in a much 
more definite shape than heretofore, and excited universal 
alarm, except among those, on both sides, who hailed their 
approach as the means to an end Avhich both had in view. 
For no rational man could then doubt, or can doubt upon the 
evidence, that the ultra-radicals of that day hoped and be- 
lieved — since the main body of the Republicans, and especial- 
ly a large majority of the Republican members of Congress, 
disavowed, in the most explicit manner, all purposes looking 
towards emancipation — that the end of the controversy, 
whether by means of war or otherwise, would be the separa- 
tion of the North from slavery, by the dissolution of the 
Union. 

The venerable Mr. Quincy had pronounced it the duty of 
the North, some years earlier, " to take possession of the 
Government," and to administer it according to Northern 
opinions, "at any hazard, even of the dissolution of the 
Union itself." Mr. Wendell Phillips had publicly boasted, 
in the phrase so often quoted in the newspapers, that he had 
been engaged " for nineteen years " in the work of dissolu- 
tion, an object in which it is not to be supposed that the ad- 
mirers of his oratorical efforts did not fully sympathize. The 
New York Tribune, which, more than any other journal of 
the period, was the express and ablest organ of the "radical 
wing " of the Republican party, on the 2d day of March, 
1861 — that is, at the very high tide of the secession demon- 
stration — explictly declared its-opinion, as has been already 
shown, that the slave States had " a moral right," if they 
chose, " to form an independent nation." The construction 
to be put iipon the intimations of Mr. Wilson — however truly 
they represented the sentiments of " Democrats and Bell and 



414 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

Everett men ! " — could scarcely admit of a question. On the 
4th of the preceding June, a few days after the session of 
the Chicago Republican Convention, Mr. Sumner, in a speech 
to the Senate, afterwards published and circulated in a 
pamphlet form, under the significant title of " The Barbarism 
of Slavery," thus gave the key-note to the designs of that 
section of the party to Avhich he himself belonged : 

" Thus, sir, speaking for freedom for Kansas, I have spolien for freedom 
everywhere. * * * You may reject it (that is, this 'cause'), but it will be 
only for to-day. Tlie sacred animosity between freedom and slavery can end 
only in the triumph of freedom. The same question will soon be carried be- 
fore that high tribunal, supreme over Senate and Court, where the judges will 
be counted by millions, and where the judgment rendered will be the solemn 
charge of an aroused people, instructing a new President, in the name of free- 
dom, to see that civilization receives no detriment." 

This was the " irrepressible conflict," with the new ele 
ment of " sacred animosity " introduced, to impel one sec- 
tion of the peojile to " take possession of the Government," 
to the detriment of the other section, against the law. In- 
deed, the populace are here appealed to as supreme over both 
the legislative and the judicial departments of the Govern- 
ment, with a shrewd hint to them to assume supremacy over 
the Executive department also ; and all, " in the name of 
freedom," when there was no freedom concerned in the mat- 
ter, but that of negro slaves held in that condition by virtue 
of the organic national statute ! And to cite no more instances, 
the Chicago Convention itself — though it were to be hoped 
that a large proportion of its members failed to observe the 
effect of the declaration,' had appealed, in its final and clinch- 

* This hope could hardly be indulged after reading, at a later date, the fol- 
lowing account of the transaction, by one of the principal actors at Chicago : 

" The report (tliat is, of the resolutions) being read, the author proposed 
an amendment, respecting the ' self-evident truths ' of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, * * * which was rejected. Unwilling to sit in a convention 
that hesitated to respect the primal truths upon ichich the Government was 
founded, the author left the hall. As he went to his lodgings, gentlemen from 
diiferent States accompanied him, wishing to have another convention called 
of men who would abide by the doctrines of the Government. But, while con- 



PKOposmoN OF vraGiNiA. 415 

ing resolution, to the " causes of separation," which it was 
conceived were to justify the " proceeding, when necessary 
for one people to dissolve the p)olitical bands which have 
(Connected them tcith another.'''' 

The interposition of the General Assembly of Virginia, at 
the noAv existing emergency, has been already alluded to. 
This consisted of the passage of certain resolutions, on the 
nineteenth day of January, inviting the several States to 
appoiut commissioners to meet those named in the resolu- 
tions, on the part of Virginia,* at the city of Washington, on 
the fourth of the ensuing February, " to consider, and if 
practicable, agree upon some suitable adjustment " — " in the 
spirit in which the Constitution was originally formed, and 
consistently with its principles." The pi-opositions intro- 
duced into Congress by Mr, Crittenden, together with a pro- 
vision for the protection of slavery in territories lying south 
of 36° 30' north latitude, during the continuance of the terri- 
torial government, were recommended to "constitute the 
basis of such an adjustment of the unhappy controversy" as 
would be accepted by the people of that Commonwealth. 
Every thing here depended upon the temper with which such 
a profler as this would be met by the several legislative 
assemblies of the free States ; and, considering the political 
basis on which those bodies themselves stood, the prospect 
certainly was not very encouraging. The result of a cordial 
agreement, by such a body of men as might be selected, if 
"the spirit were willing, to confer with gentlemen of the cliar- 
acter and standing of tltose named by Virginia — even upon 
something less, perhaps, than was claimed by the " Mother 
of Presidents " — would have had the certain eifect of con- 
fining secession to the seven States already' in that attitude ; 
and must have led, at no distant date, to the return of them 

versing on the subject, Mr. Curtis, of New York, offered, substantially, the 
same ameudmeut, and sustained it by an able speech. Mr. Nye, of that State, 
also supported it, and it was adopted ; and, being informed of this fact, the 
author and his friends resumed their seats in the convention." — History of the 
Rebellion, etc., by Joshua R. Giddings. 



416 OEIGESr OF THE LATE WAE. 

all, if from no other strong motive, yet from that of one over- 
powering interest common to the slave States. If the posi- 
tion of those seven States were irregular, for a time, certainly 
it would be nothing very extraordinary in the history of 
nations, and by no means so irregular as civil war. 

The proposition of Virginia was like a fire-brand suddenly 
presented at the portals of the Republican magazine, and the 
whole energies of the radicals were at once enlisted to make 
it of no effect. The slaveholding States of Delaware, Mary- 
land, Kentucky, Tennessee, ]^orth Carolina, and Missouri, 
cheerfully responded to the appeal of Virginia ; but it was 
quite evident that they had, in general, made up their minds 
to test the question, now — whether their slave property was 
to be safe in the future or not, under the protection promised 
by the Constitution. Of the eighteen free States, five, namely, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, California, and Oregon, 
sent no commissioners — the two latter, indeed, precluded by 
the great distance and the brief time between the notice and 
the day appointed for the conference, but the others from 
disinclination. Several others selected men of eminent chai*- 
acter, in whole or in part, who might be depended upon 
to act with discretion and honor for the true interests of the 
common country. In other cases, it was quite different. In 
the great State of New York, the newly elected Republican 
Governor, Mr. Morgan, would doubtless have appointed com- 
missioners of conservative tendencies; but the Republican 
legislature chose to make the selection, and the delegation 
from that State was somewhat unequally divided between 
conservatives and the most uncompromising radicals. In 
Massachusetts, the popular alarm at the idea of war was very 
great, and it was hoped that the legislature Avould choose 
commissioners disposed to aid any reasonable plan for the 
settlement of the controversy. But, under whatever misap- 
prehension, the power of appointment was unfortunately con- 
ferred upon the executive. It was well known that he was 
altogether opposed to taking any part in the contemplated 
proceedings; but he yielded finally to the formal request 



COMMISSIONEES TO THE CONFERENCE. 41Y 

of the members of Congress from Massachusetts, signified to 
him under date of January 28th, hy every one, with the 
exception of Mr. Sumner.' 

The names of not a few gentlemen of the Republican 
party, who were considered well qualified for such a mission, 
and whose appointment would have given satisfaction to 
men of all parties, except the extreme radical faction, had 
been prominently before the public on this occasion. It was 
thought that the legislature, if it had retained the power of 
naming the commissioners, would have chosen several, at 
least, of the more moderate Republican class ; and, possibly, 
considering that the subject of the proposed conference was of 
a peculiarly national character, in which men of all jDarties were 
profoundly interested, that the legislature might prove plac- 
able enough to permit even the Democrats and conservatives 
who had supported Bell and Everett, to be represented, in 
part, according to the example set by the New York General 

■ The following is a copy of their request. It will be observed, by its 
date, that their movement was made one week before the day appointed for 
the conference. Action was not taken upon it in Massachusetts, however, 
until the evening of the first day of the meeting of the conference : 

" House of Eepeesentatives, Washington, January 28, 1861. 
"^. E. Governor J. A. Andrew, Mass. 

" Dear Sir : It is deemed by some of us advisable that the Commonwealth 
should be represented at the meeting of delegates of States, to be held at this 
place on the dth proximo. We, therefore, beg leave respectfully to call your 
attention to the expediency of early action in the premises. 
" We are your obedient servants, 

" Alex. H. Rice, 
" Chas. R. Train, 
" Henry Wilson, 
" C. r. Adams, 
" Jno. B. Alley, 
" James Buffington, 
"n. L. Dawes, 
" T. D. Elliott, 

" A. BURLINGAME, 

"D. W. GoocH, 
" Charles Delano." 
18* 



418 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

Assembly. In consequence of the opposition of the Governor, 
and of that portion of the legislature in sympathy with his 
views, action had been delayed until the 4th of February, the 
day designated for the meeting at Washington. At length, 
in an evil hour, but doubtless in the confidence that some 
reasonable respect would be paid to the various views of 
men, at an exigency so critical, the committee which had the 
matter in charge agreed to report a resolution to the legisla- 
ture for the api^ointment of the commissioners by the Execu- 
tive authority ; which was adopted by both branches on the 
evening of February 4th. The names of those whom the 
Governor had fixed upon were announced on the following 
morning; and the public were astounded to observe that 
seven more thoroitghly uncompromising gentlemen could not 
have been selected in the State. In fact, they were evidently 
to be sent to Washington, not to confer, but to resist ; and 
their united influence, exerted in that direction, in combina- 
tion with that of the other radical members, throughout the 
course of the proceedings, proved extremely u.nfavorable to 
the eflect of any measures of adjustment which might be 
adopted, and rendered whatever was actually accomplished 
of no avail. 

Indeed, the Northern legislatures, in general, having come 
under the control of the sectionalists, were extremely reluc- 
tant to accede to the invitation of Virginia ; and although 
professing their desire for a friendly conference, in their reso- 
lutions for the appointment of cominissioners, took care to 
let it be known that they were not prepared to accept the 
basis of adjustment proposed.^ Several of them, in merely 
formal compliance, simply requested their Senators and 
Rej^resentatives in Congress to act on behalf of the State, in 
the Convention ; that is, Kepublican politicians, already, 
both privately and ofiicially implicated in the doings of the 

* All but New Jersey, the only free State which had given a Democratic 
majority in the election. The resolutions of its legislature set forth that the 
proposition of Mr. Crittenden would be " acceptable to the people of the State 
of New Jersey." 



SPmiT OF THE RADICALS. 419 

party, instead of men from whom some impartial consider- 
ation of the subject might be expected as possible. But, 
notwithstanding all this effort at " hedging," the radicals 
were in a state of extreme trepidation. The Convention con- 
tained many gentlemen of great public reputation, and who 
had held eminent offices in the nation and at home, both 
from the border slave States and from several of the free 
States. There seemed reason to apprehend, that their de- 
liberations might produce a strong public impression, and 
prove unfavorable to the interests and objects of the lyarty. 
It was in this state of mind that the following despatch was 
sent to the Governor of Wisconsin, by a Reel and Black Re- 
publican, who afterwards became somewhat notorious in a 
military capacity : 

" February 1, 1S61. 
" To Govfrnor Randall : 

"Appoint commissioners to Washington Conference — myself one — to 

strengthen our side. Carl Schurz." 

The subjoined letter, also, from one of the Senators in 
Congress from Michigan, presenting the views of himself and 
his colleague, though often cited in the public journals, is of 
too much interest to be omitted here : 

" Wasuington, February 11, 1861. 
" My dear Governor : Governor Bingham ^ and myself telegraphed to you 
on Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and Nao York,'' to send delegates 
to the Peace Compromise Congress. They admit that we were right and they 
were wrong ; that no Republican Stale should have sent delegates ; but they 
are here, and can't get away. Ohio, Indiana, and Rhode Island are caving in, 

' Mr. Bingham, one of the Senators from Michigan, wrote to the Governor 
of that State, from Washington, under date of February 15th : 

" It cannot be doubted that the recommendations of this convention will 
have considerable influence upon the public mind and upon the action of Con- 
gress." 

^ This letter indicates, therefore, the coincidence of views between the 
Massachusetts delegation and the Michigan Senator. In regard to New York, 
however, it was a partial misrepresentation. While a majority of its delega- 
tion were of the most " stiff-backed " description, there were others of a very 
diflferent spirit. But, probably, the writer, who speaks of a State as if it were 
Republican property, reckoned all but the " stiff-backed " for nothing. 



420 OEIGIJSr OF THE LATE WAK. 

and there is some danger of Illinois ; and now they beg us, for God's sake, to 
come to their rescue, and save the Republican party from rupture. I hope you 
wiU send stiff-backed men, or none. The whole thmg was gotten up against 
my judgment and advice, and will end in thin smoke. Still, I hope, as a mat- 
ter of courtesy to some of our erring brethren, that you will send the dele- 
gates. "Truly your friend, 

" Z. Chandlkr. 
" His Excellency Austin Blair. 

" P. S. — Some of the manufacturing States think that a fight would be aw- 
ful. Without a little blood-letting, this Union will not, m my estimation, be 
worth a curse." 

If this truly eloquent and statesmanlike ej)istle does not 
express the views of the Republican managers at the time, 
precisely, it does at least indicate with sufficient clearness, 
their relations ^towards the Peace Conference, and the deter- 
mined jjurpose of the radicals to have " a fight ; " and it fur- 
thermore foreshadows the actual direction given to future 
events. Theue were enough of the " stiff-backed " in the 
Peace Conference to deprive its deliberations and their result 
of all moral effect. They thought much more of saving 
" the Republican party from rupture," than of taking pains 
to prevent the threatened dissolution of the Union ; an event 
which only too many of them actually desired, and which 
had now come so near, because, in the face of a calamity so 
dreadful, " conservative " Republicans and desjoerate radicals 
continued to hold together and to act in concert with each 
other. The occasion had drawn to the city of "Washington 
very many persons of public and private reputation, espe- 
cially from the North ; and their efforts were not wanting, by 
argument and expostulation, to impress the radical members 
of the conference with whom they were acquainted, with 
the realities of the situation, and in striving to bring about 
a better understanding. It was all in vain. The reply was 
— when driven to an explicit avowal of what they desired — 
" We have won the battle " (which was not the fact, since the 
victory had fallen to them by accident), " and we mean to have 
the fruits." The conference continued its sessions until Feb- 
ruary 2^^ It is useless to examine its doings in detail. A 
committee of one from each State represented had been ap- 



PEOPOSITIONS OF THE PEACE CONFEKENCE. 421 

pointed at an early period of the proceedings, to consider the 
general subject before the conference ; and its report, after 
the adoption of certain amendments, was finally agreed to 
by a majority of the delegates. The amendments to the 
Constitution proposed by the committee were contained in 
seven different propositions, the vote on each of which was 
t alien separately : 

I. Slavery was prohibited in territory north of the paral- 
lel of 36° 30', and permitted south of that line. No law was 
to be passed by Congress or the local legislatures, to prevent 
the taking of slaves into the latter territory ; and on either 
side of the line, territory, with inhabitants sufficient and with 
a republican foi'm of government, was to be admitted either 
with or without involuntary servitude, as its constitution 
might provide. 

II. No future acquisition of territory was to be made, 
except by discovery and for certain national purposes, with- 
out the concurrence of a majority of Senators from the free 
States and the slave States respectively. 

III. Congress was to have no power, by construction of 
the Constitution, or by any amendment of it, to interfere 
Avith slavery in any State, or in the District of Columbia, or 
in places within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United 
States ; nor to prohibit the transportation of slaves from one 
slave State or territory to another ; but they were not to be 
taken through States or territories in which the laws forbade 
such transit. Slaves were not to be brought into the Dis- 
trict of Columbia for sale, or to be kept there on the way to 
sale. 

IV. No such construction was to be placed on the article 
of the Constitution which provides for the delivery of fugi- 
tives from service or labor, as to prevent States from passing 
laws for the enforcement of that provision. 

V. The foreign slave trade was to be forever prohibited. 

VI. The provisions of the Constitution for the delivery 
of fugitives from service or labor, and in relation to the ap- 
portionment of representatives and direct taxes, were not to 



422 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAK. 

be amended or abolished without the consent of all the 
States. 

VII. Congress was to provide by law for the payment, by 
the United States to the owner, of the full value of any slave 
rescued by violence or intimidation, or whose recovery might 
be prevented by the same meaus.^ 

' It should be stated that Mr. Chase, at the period in question a Senator 
from Ohio, was also a member of the Peace Conference ; and a brief letter 
written by him to a friend, at the time, expressing his apprehensions of an 
adjustment, came to light at a later period, and had extensive circulation in 
the newspapers of the day. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Fair Basis of Settlement in the Propositions of tlie Peace Conference ; but they vrero 
carried only by bare Majorities. — The Crittenden Resolutions. — The Committee of 
Thirteen. — Jlr. Toombs's Statement of its Spirit. — Mr. Douglas on the Eesolutions. — Mr. 
Crittenden's Opinion of their Eflfect, had they been adopted. — Mr. Pugh and Mr. 
Douglas, as to the readiness of Mr. Davis and Mr. Toombs to accept them, if agreed 
to by the Republican Members. — Resolutions already rejected by the House, lost in 
the Senate, by a Majority of One, Mr. Seward not voting. — The two-thirds Vote 
necessary to give them Effect could not have been obtained, had all the Southern 
Senators been present. — Mi\ Douglas's Statement that many of the Republican Loaders 
desired Dissolution aud "War. — Mr. Everett's Letter, of February 2d, 1861, to the 
',' Union " Meeting at Faneuil Hall, in Opposition to " Coercion," and stating the Party 
Obstacles to Adjustment. — Certain Anti-Abolition Resolutions pass the House. — The 
Faint-heartedness of the Class of Republican Leaders who were Union Men, but afraid 
of breaking up their Party, prevented the Settlement 

In the foregoing propositions of the Peace Conference 
was evidently a sound basis for settlement of the contro- 
versy. These propositions came quite up to the resolutions 
introduced by Mr. Crittenden, and to the recommendations 
of the General Assembly of Virginia, except in regard to 
the comparatively immaterial point of the transportation of 
slaves through the non-slaveholding States ; and they would, 
doubtless, have been gladly acceded to by the slave States 
at an earlier period. Even now, if adopted by the confer- 
ence, with any thing approaching to general concurrence, or 
if accepted and recommended by Congress, the country 
might have been saved from its coming trials. But here was 
the difficulty in the way. No such general concurrence had 
existed, and there was no hope whatever of the favorable 
action of Congress. Though the majority of the delegations 
from several of the free States voted uniformly in favor of 



424: OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAB. 

the propositions in turn, the full vote of the delegates from 
others of the tree States was given uniformly in opposition 
to each. Several of the propositions were not entirely satis- 
factory to some of the slave States ; and Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts, and Vermont were • sometimes found 
voting side by side av ith North Carolina and Virginia. In 
fact, the propositions were carried by majorities simply, and 
in some instances bjibare majorities, instead of by any gen- 
eral consent ; and so far as their effect was concerned, they 
might as well not have been carried at all. The same sj)irit 
prevailed in the conference, which had been already exhib- 
ited by Congress, and which was still kept up to the close 
of the session. The Crittenden resolutions had been reported 
to the Senate at an early period, from the Committee of Thir- 
teen. The members of the committee were Messrs. Powell 
and Crittenden of Kentucky, Mr. Hunter of Virginia, Mr. 
Seward of New York, Mr. Toombs of Georgia, Mr. Doug- 
las of Illinois, Mr. Collamer of Vermont, Mr. Davis of 
Mississippi, Mr. Wade of Ohio, Mr. Bigler of Pennsylva- 
nia, Mr. Rice of Minnesota, Mr. Doolittle of Wisconsin, 
and Mr. Grimes of Iowa. Eight of the members were 
Democrats or conservatives ; five were Republicans. Five 
were from the slave States, and eight from the free States. 
It is difficult to see how the committee could have been more 
appropi'iately constituted. But, as in the case of the Peace 
Conference, it is evident that the action of the conservative 
majority could be of no avail, without the assent of the Re- 
publican members. Within five days after the subject had 
been submitted to their consideration, on December 23d, Mr. 
Toombs informed his constituents in Georgia that — 

" A vote was taken in the Committee of Thirteen on amendments to the 
Constitution, proposed by the. Hon. John J. Crittenden, and each and all of 
them were voted against harmoniously by the Black-Republican members of 
the committee. In addition to these facts, a majority of the Black-Republican 
members of the committee declared distinctly that they had no guarantees to 
offer, which was silently acquiesced in by the other members." ' 

* Quoted in Carpenter's " Logic of History," p. 139. 



STATEMENTS OF ME. DOUGLAS AND MK. CEITTENDEN. 425 

Where the obstacle lay may be learned, also, from a 
speech of Mr. Douglas in the Senate, January 3d, in which, 
referring to a similar plan of compromise, introduced by him- 
self, he said : 

" I believe this to be a fair basis of amicable adjustment. If you, of the 
Republican side, are not willing to accept this, nor the proposition of the 
Senator from Kentucky, Mr. Crittenden, pray tell us what you are willing to do. 
I address the inquiry to the Republicans alone, for the reason that, in the 
Committee of Thirteen, a few days ago, every member from the South, includ- 
ing those from the cotton States (Messrs. Davis and Toombs), expressed their 
readiness to accept the proposition of my venerable friend from Kentucky^ as a 
final settlement of the controversy, if tendered and sustained by the Rqmblican 
members. Hence, the sole responsibility of our disagreement, and the only diffi- 
culty in the way of an amicable adjustment, is with the Republican party.'''' ^ 

Indeed, Mr. Toombs himself, in a speech to the Senate, 
January Vth, speaking of course for those with whom he was 
acting as well as for himself, after suggesting the .conditions 
which he would prefer and would accept, " for the sake of 
pea(;e — permanent peace " — proceeded : 

" I am willing, however, to take the proposition of the Senator (from Ken- 
tucky), as it was understood in committee, putting the North and the South on 
the same ground, prohibiting slavery on one side, acknowledging slavery and 
protecting it on the other ; and applying that to jjU future acquisitions, so that 
the whole continent, to the north pole, shall be settled upon the one rule, and 
to the south pole, under the other." ^ 

This was in exact conformity with the propositions of the 
Peace Conference, and, moreover, the principle of the Mis- 
souri Comi^romise. Mr. Crittenden, also, in a published 
letter to Mi'. Anderson, of Cincinnati, dated March 27th, 
1861, remarks, in reference to the resolutions which bear his 
name : 

"I believe, if those measures thus offered had been, at a suitable time, 
promptly adopted by the Congress of the United States, it would have checked 
the progress of the rebellion and revolution, and saved the Union.'" 

On the day of the final disposition of the question, March 

* "Congressional Globe," Appendix, 1860-61, p. 41. 
» lb., 1861, p. 270. 



426 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAK. 

3d, 1861, Mr. Pugli, of Ohio, declared, in a speech to the 
Senate : 

" Before the Senators from the State of Mississippi left this chamber, I 
heard one of them, who now assumes, at least, to be President of the Southern 
Confederacy, propose to accept it (that is, the Crittenden proposition), and to 
maintain the Union,' if that proposition couJd receive the vote it ought to receive 
from the other side of this chamber. Therefore, of all your propositions, of all 
your amendments, knowing as I do, and knowing that the historian will write 
it down, at any time before the first of January, a tivo-thirds vote for the Crit- 
tenden Resolutions, in this chamber, would have saved every State in the Union 
but South Carolina." ^ 

Mr. Douglas followed Mr. Pugli on this occasion, and 
remarked : 

" The Senator has said, that if the Crittenden proposition could have passed, 
early in the session, it would have saved all the States, except South Carolina. 
I firmly believe it would. * * * I can confirm the Senator's declaration, 
that Senator Davis himself, when on the Committee of Thirteen, was ready at 
all times to compromise on the Crittenden propositioji. I will go further, and 
say that Mr. Toombs was also." ^ 

On the 3d of March a final disj)osition was made of the 
question. The House had already rejected the measure, on 
the 27th of February, by a vote of 113 to 80. In the Senate, 
the amendment ofiered by Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, 
came up first in order, and was defeated by yeas 22, to nays 
14 ; several Republican Senators, acting with the majority, 
in order, as they stated, either to allow " the Senator from 
Kentucky to obtain a vote on his resolutions," or " in order 
to get an opportunity to vote against the resolution of the 
Senator from Kentucky." Two or three others were silent 
as to their reasons, though acting doubtless from similar mo- 
tives. The question then recurred upon adopting the Crit- 
tenden plan of adjustment. All the Republican Senators 
present voted for its rejection, except Mr. Seward, who ab- 
stained from giving his vote at all. The only Senators pres- 
ent from the seceding States were those from Virginia and 
Tennessee, one from Arkansas, and one from Texas, together 

* " Congressional Globe," part ii., p. 1300. 
"" lb., p. 1391. 



DEMOCRATS NOT TWO-THTEDS OF THE SENATE. 427 

with one from Missouri. All these, including Mr. Johnson, 
now President of the United States, voted for the adoption 
of the plan. The result was, its rejection by a strict party 
vote of 20 to 19. Thus the Senate of the United States put 
a final end to any lingering hopes which might have been 
entertained, that at least the moral influence of a majority 
of that hitherto respected body would have been afibrded to 
the sole measure of pacification formally before the country, 
and upon which the heart of the nation may justly be said 
to have been so long and so anxiously fixed. ^ 

It has been alleged, indeed, on many hands, and very 
extensively believed, without examination of the facts, that 
it was by the wilful default of the Southern Senators, that 
the Ci'ittenden proposition was defeated; in a word, that the 
Northern Senators could not be expected to adopt the meas- 
ure, since those from the South had seen fit to abandon it to 
its fate. On the contrary, supposing higher motives, worthy 
of tlie occasion and becoming statesmen and patriotic citizens, 
could have had due influence, the very fact alleged — though 
not altogether accurately stated, since twelve Senators from 
slave States retained their seats until Congress finally rose — 
might seem to impose upon the Northern Senators a still higher 
obligation. It was. entirely in their own power to adopt meas- 
ures Avhich would have put the deserters so clearly in the 
wrong, as to have left no excuse even to themselves ; and which, 
at the latest hour, could have hardly failed to pave the way for 
the pacification of the country. It Avas the very absence of the 
seceders which gave the others the grand opportunity. For, 
in that case, no outbreak of violence could have occurred ; 
the question would have been submitted to the people ; and 
time would have been afibrded for " the angry excitements of 
the hour" to pass away. And, even if the seven States, 
which alone had seceded, at the close of the session of Con- 
gress had been able to maintain their attitude until the pop- 

' It was stated iu the public prints, early in November, 1861, when actual 
war had been on foot but a few months, that Mr. Lincoln made known his 
" regrets that he did not urge the adoption of the Crittenden compromise." 



428 OEiGEsr OF the late wae. 

iilar decision had been reached, it is certain that, upon 
agreement to the proposed constitutional amendment, by a 
majority of the Northern States, they must have been com- 
pelled to yield to the popular will of the South itself, without 
further action on the jjart of the North. Such a course, 
therefore, adopted by Congress, would have saved the coun- 
try — but it would have broken wp the Republican party. 

But, in fact, the Democrats and conservatives in the 
Senate did not have it in their power to give the vote of two- 
thirds, necessary for the submission of the question to the 
people, even when the Senators from all the States were in 
their places ; to say nothing of the decided majority against 
any plan of adjustment in the House of Representatives. 
Of the twenty-seven Senators who constituted the majority, 
upon the reconsideration of Mr. Chirk's amendment, on the 
eighteenth of January, not less than seventeen were from the 
slave States, and no Republicans voted in favor of the mo- 
tion. The Senate, at that time, consisted of sixty-six mem- 
bers ; of whom thirty were from the slave States, and ten 
were Democrats or conservatives from the free States. Had 
all the seceding Senators, therefore, remained in their places 
till the last, they could not have secured the necessary two- 
thirds, without the aid of four Republican votes ; and that 
those would not be afforded was made sufficiently clear by 
their action upon the amendment j)roposed by the Senator 
from New Hampshire. Indeed, the Republican members 
let it be known, at the earliest date, as has been already 
shown, that they " had no guarantees to offer." Had the 
others, therefore, been in numbers sufficient to obtain a bare 
two-thirds vote, it would have been simj)ly a reaffirmation of 
their own well-understood views, and without any moral in- 
fluence whatever. Besides, the action of the House shows 
it would have been of no avail. It was for the RepubUcans 
to shake themselves free from the trammels of party, and, for 
the sake of the country, to unite with the Democrats upon a 
plan of adjustment. Deliberately declining to do so, the 
conclusion is unavoidable, that ujDon them must rest the re- 
sponsibility. 



WHAT EEPUBLICAN LEADERS WANTED. 4:29 

Of the spirit which really actuated the Republican lead- 
ers, the testimony of Mr. Douglas — liable himself to no suspi- 
cion of disimionism, and who had been, at the preceding 
election, the candidate of nearly two-thirds of the Democratic 
party, in opposition to the express " Southern wing " — aflfords 
convincing proof. The following passage is an extract frftra 
a letter addressed by him, from Washington, to Mr. Hayes, 
of Chicago, dated December 29, 1860: 

" 2Iany of the Republican leaders desire a dissolution of the Union, and 
urge war as a means of accomplishing disunion; while others are Union men 
in good faith. We have now reached a point where a compromise on the basis 
of mutual concession, or disunion and war, are inevitable." ' 

But the trouble then, and afterwards, was, that the Re- 
publicans who were for the Union voted with those who were 
for disunion, upon questions tending to promote disunion ; 
thus rendering their own private views of no consequence. 

In another letter of Mr. Douglas, addressed to Mr. Taylor, 
of New York, and dated on the same day, he wrote : 

" We are now drifting rapidly hito civil war, which must end in disunion. 
This can only be prevented by amendments to the Constitution, which will take 
the slavery question out of Congress. Whether this can be done, depends 
upon tlie Republicans. Many of their leaders desire disunion on party 
grounds, and here is the difficulty. God grant us a safe deliverance, is my 
prayer." " 

It makes no difference, so far as these special vaticinations 
are concerned, that the revolution in the end, as revolutions 
often have done, took another turn than that originally anti- 
cipated. Most men believed, at the time, that the separation 
would be consummated. But those who had been the most 
notorious disunionists professed themselves "Union men," 
when it became more likely that the North would " take 
possession of the Government," and break down the Consti- 
tution in its application to the slave institution of the South. 
This class of persons is graphically described in the following- 
further extract from a letter of Mr. Douglas, dated at Wash- 



* Quoted in " Logic of History," p. 13«. 
' lb., p. 130. 



430 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAE. 

ingtoii, February 2d, 1861, and addressed to a paper in Ten- 
nessee, Avith the purpose of dissuading the people of that 
State from taking part with secession : 

" You must remember that there are disunionists among the party leaders 
at the North, as well as at the South ; men whose hostility to slavery is 
stronger than their fidelity to the Constitution, and who believe that the dis- 
ruption of the Union would draw after it, as an inevitable consequence, civil 
war, servile insurrection, and finally, the utter extermination of slavery, in all 
the Southern States. * * * The Northern disunionists, like the disunion- 
ists of the South, are violently opposed to all compromises, or constitutional 
amendments, or eiforts at conciliation, whereby peace should be restored and 
//,' the Union preserved. They are striving to breakup the Union, under the pre- 
' ' tence of unbounded devotion to it. They are struggling to overthrow the Con- 
stitution, while professing undying attachment to it, and a willingness to make 
any sacrifice to maintain it.' 

" They are trying to plunge the country into -civil war, as the surest means 
of destroying the Union, upon the plea of enforcing the laws and protecting 
tlie public property. If they can defeat any adjustment or compromise, by 
which the points at issue may be satisfactorily settled, and keep up the irrita- 
tion, so as to induce the Border States to follow the cotton States, they will 
feel certain of the accomplishment of their ultimate designs. Nothing icill 
gratify them so much, or contribute so efifectually to their success, as the se- 
cession of Tennessee and the Border States, Every State that withdraws from 
the Union increases the relative power of the Northern abolitionists to defeat 
a satisfactory adjustment." 

On the same day that this letter was written, Mr. Everett, 
then at Washington, addressed a letter to a committee of 
citizens of Boston, who had in preparation the arrangements 
for a " Union meeting " at Faneuil Hall. Tlie meeting was 
duly held, and was unsurpassed for the multitude in attend- 
ance and the ijiterest exhibited ; and the fact that the " Crit- 
tenden Proposition" received the unanimous and enthusiastic 
approval of the vast assemblage gathered in the capital city 
of New England, may aflbrd some reasonable indication of 
the sui:>port it was likely to obtain, if submitted by Congress 
to the whole j^eople of the United States. Mr. Everett's let- 
ter contained the following passages : 

' There was another class, however, who boasted of having publicly burned 
the Constitutio7i, and'that they had been for years engaged in efforts to destroy 
■ the Union. 



ME. EVERETT ON THE SITTJATION. 431 

" The crisis is one of greater danger and importance than has ever before 
existed. * * * The course of the remaining Southern States will be de- 
cided in a few days. They are under opposing influences. A strong conserva- 
tive sentiment binds them to the Union ; a natural sympathy with the seceding 
States draws them in an opposite direction. 

" If they adhere to the Union, there will be no insuperable difficulty in 
winning back the sister States, which have temporarily withdrawn from us ; 
but if the Border States are drawn into the Southern Confederacy, the fate 
of the country is sealed. * * * To expect to hold fifteen States in the 
Union by force is preposterous. The idea of a civil war, accompanied as it 
would be by a servile insurrection, is too monstrous to be entertained for a 
moment. If our sister States must leave us, in the name of Heaven let them 
go in peace ! I agree in the sentiment, that the people alone can avert these 
du'e calamities. Political leaders, however well disposed, are hampered by 
previous committals, and controlled by their associates. The action of Con- 
gress, unless accelerated by an urgent impulse from the ultimate source of 
power, is too much impeded by the forms of legislation and tediousness of de 
bate. There is no hope from the political parties of the country — agencies, 
unhappily, too potent for mischief, but, in the present extremity, powerless 
for good, except by a generous sacrifice of all party views, interest, and ambi- 
tion, to the public weal." 

But the difficulty here was, that the direction of affairs 
was in the hands of political leaders, " hami^ered by previous 
committals and controlled b^ their associates /'''' so that the 
question could not reach the people, in any such definite 
shape, as to obtain an efficient expression of their will. Nu- 
merous meetings, like that at Faneuil Hall, were held in the 
principal cities and elsewhere at the North. But they were 
merely popular assemblages of conservative citizens, known 
expressly as " Union men " — from which " agencies unhappily 
too potent for mischief," induced the body of the supporters 
of the coming administration to withhold their countenance. 
What was wanted was, the legitimate vote of the people, 
according to the ordinary forms, upon a definite question 
submitted to their determination by the law-making power. 
But this Congress refused to grant. Truly, the " times were 
great, and the men were smalL" 

It is proper to state, that in the midst of these expressions 
of popuLar sentiment and feeling, on the 11th of February, 
the lower branch of Congress passed the subjoined resolu- 



432 OEIGm OF THE LATE WAR. 

tions, with the unanimous support of the Republican mem- 
bers ; upon which the Senate, however, took no action : 

Resolved, That neither the Federal Government, nor the people, or govern- 
ments of non-slaveholding States, have a purpose, or a constitutional right to 
legislate upon, or interfere with slavery, in any of the States of the Union. 

Resolved, That those persons in the North, who do not subscribe to the 
foregoing propositions, are too insignificant in numbers and influence, to excite 
tlie serious attention or alarm of any portion of the people of the republic ; and 
that the increase of their numbers and influence does not keep pace with the 
increase of the aggregate population of the North. 

That such a profession of views as this was politic, in 
order to throw the blame of needless disturbance upon the 
South, and also to meet and to unite the sentiment of Northern 
popular majorities, there can be no doubt. A war professedly 
for abolition could hardly have enlisted a dozen regiments in 
the North. How far such a declaration was consistent with 
the statements of Mr. Douglas, for example, in regard to the 
opinions and purj^oses of men in eminent public station, with 
whom he was in habits of daily intercourse, or with that de- 
tail of facts which history is bound to record, is another mat- 
ter. But, while it is certain, that the faction of the party 
thus stigmatized was, at the very moment, not only its most 
active agent, but the very nucleus around which the party 
itself had gradually formed itself — and did eventually, by 
regular advances, mainly mould its policy and control its 
action — yet the world cannot fail to be convinced by the 
tenor of these resolutions, that the civil war, so soon to ensue, 
was actually begun by the North, as well as the South, upon 
merely political, and not upon moral or i^hilanthropical con- 
sidei'ations. History will also painfully record, that the 
woes and sacrifices of the country and the strain upon re- 
publican institutions, of which the full effect has not yet been 
made manifest, might all have been saved by a little manli- 
ness on the part of that class of Republican leaders described 
by Mr. Douglas as " Union men in good faith," who could 
easily have carried three-quarters of their party with them. 
What action the disunionist leaders and the remaining quarter 



EADICALS "WEAK AGAINST THE COUNTET. 433 

pa'-t of tlie Republicans might have seen fit to take, would 
tiave been of no consequence whatever. If they had attempt- 
ed revolution in consequence of the failure of their schemes, 
the struggle against the united power of the country would 
have been brief indeed, compared with that which actually 
took place between the discordant and contending sections. 



19 



CHAPTER XX. 

Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln.— His Character.— The Grand Question at the Time how to 
avoid "War.— Jlr. Everett's Favorable Position to judge, and his Opinion.— Resolutions of 
a pacific Spirit pass the House by a two-thirds Vote too late, but not acted upon in the 
Senate. — The Inaugural Address. — The Purpose only to maintain and defend the 
Union.— A Disavowal of any Intent to use Force.— The Policy temporizing and con- 
ciliatory.— Interview with- Delegates from the Virginia Assembly after the Attack on 
Fort Sumter ; still on the D</%ne^.— Statement of the Purposes of Secession by the 
Commissioner from Mississippi to Maryland ; not the Object to dissolve the Union. — 
The Grand Kaval Expedition, and the Assault on Fort Sumter. — Mr. Campbell, ex- 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and Mr. Seward. — Extract from Leading 
Journals, in Relation to the Affair of Fort Sumter.— The New Tork Jlet'ald.—The 
Charleston Courier. — The New Tork Tribtine. — The ffe/'ald again. — Mr. Seward, 
DO do-ibt, intended to fulfil his Engagement. — The Unhappy Results of the incongruous 
Composition of the Republican Party.— Despatch to the New Tork Herald. — The 
Effect of " Pressure." 

On the fourth of March, 1861, the day following the final 
action of Congress in the rejection of the " Peace Measures," 
Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated. 

The new President was a person of scarcely more than 
ordinary natural powers, with a mind neither cultivated by 
education, nor enlarged by experience in public affairs. He 
was thus incapable of any wide range of thought, or, in fact, 
of obtaining any broad grasp of general ideas. His thoughts 
ran in narrow channels. He was infirm of purpose, so far as 
to be liable to be led by sharper minds and more resolute 
wills ; though, like persons of that character, not unfrequently 
insisting upon minor points of consideration, whether right or 
wrong. He was of that class of men, who, under color of 
good intentions, often fail of bringing any good purpose to 
pass. He had been put in training by the Western Republi- 
cans, to hold a political contest with Mr. Douglas, in order 



CHABACTEB OF ME. LINCOLN. 435 

to become his rival for the Presidency ; as manifesting certain 
eccentricities of thought and expression, and. occasionally a 
humorous style of addressing popular assemblies which is 
taking with the multitude. By a large majoi'ity of the 
people he had never been heard of, before his nomination ; 
and it was owing more to their ignorance, than to their 
knowledge of him, that he obtained their votes, in obedience 
to party dictation. He found himself at the head of alfairs 
at the most critical period in the history of the country, and 
in the midst of dangers and embarrassments sufficient to try 
the abilities of the most prudent and sagacious statesman ; 
and it is no wonder that he seldom understood what the situa- 
tion demanded, and seldom failed to commit mistakes when he 
acted for himself. His character appears to have been defiled 
by no vices ; but much more than this was requisite in 
his position. Mr. Lincoln had a certain shrewdness, but was 
inoftensive in disposition ; and in most inferior stations could 
scarcely have failed to win good will. His dreadful assassination 
threw around him the halo of martyrdom. There could hardly 
have been a Chief Magistrate, in whose case a fate so tragic 
and terrible could seem more incongruous with all his per- 
sonal characteristics. We know little more of " Duncan's " 
public life, than that he bore his faculties with exemplai-y/ 
meekness. To the murdered President the same tribute/ 
may be justly paid. He was as far from being a tyrant, v 
as he was from being a statesman. He was undoubtedly ^ 
patriotic, and sincerely so, by instinct, habit, and senti- 
ment ; but his well-known letter to the editor of the New 
York Tribune^ overlooking the causes of Union in attemj^t- 
ing to preserve it, shows that his patriotism was in the 
manner of those who do not cleai-ly comprehend the true 
grounds of patriotism, or fully appreciate those objects of 
civil government, which inspire the cordial affections of 
intelligent and earnest lovers of free institutions. There have 
been those, since his death, Avho have seen fit to compare 
him with the first great President ;- but there could scarcely 
exist a personal contrast more marked, than that between 



436 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

his somewhat loosely constituted and indecisive character, 
and the firm texture which distinguished the calm and mod- 
erate, yet high-toned and sagacious mind of Washington. 

The causes of the war — that is, the course of events lead- 
ing to that hostile state of feeling preliminary to a trial of 
strength between rival powers — may be thought to have 
been made manifest in this volume in sufiicient detail. The 
grand question before the country now certainly was — How 
actual war — civil war — the guilt of bloodshed among a kin- 
dred* people — not improbably the horrible and revolting 
excesses of a servile insurrection, might be avoided. Where- 
ever a truly patriotic and Christian heart beat, throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, its fervent supplication 
was, that a calamity so direful might in mercy be averted — 
that some way of escape might be j^rovided, from an alteima- 
tive so needless. There was probably no person so favorably 
situated as Mr. Everett had been, to learn the exact state of 
opinion at Washington, and to see clearly what the exigency 
at hand demanded. His public reputation needs no com- 
ment. He had devoted himself conspicuously, for several 
preceding years, to a great national object, calculated to 
draw more closely together the ties of the Union.* He had 
just been a candidate, at the sacrifice of his private feelings, 
and for the sake of the cause of the distinctively denominated 
*' Union party." He was well known for his moderation in 
all things. He was in friendly relations with the leading 
men of all parties throughout the country. Notwithstanding 
his political position, he was on the best of social terms with 
those members of the Republican party who were likely to 
encourage a moderate policy ; one of whom at least became 
the most conspicuous member of the administration, shortly 
after Mr. Everett's letter to Boston, already cited, was writ- 
ten, and was the acknowledged leader of the Republican 
party ; if any man could be said to lead a party distracted 

' The purchase of Mount Vernon, by the people of the United States, as a 
perpetual memorial of " The Father of his Country." 



MR. Everett's views. 437 

by such discordant views, and which he was often compelled 
to follow through many strange vagaries. Mr. Everett had 
written, in this letter of February 2d : 

" I have yielded, at the sacrifice of personal convenience, to the advice and 
request that I would prolonj^ my stay at Washington with a view to confer- 
ence with members of Congress, and other persons from various parts of the 
Union, who are uniting their counsels and efforts for its preservationy 

This, then, upon such unexceptionable testimony, was the 
great object, which, with his unsurpassed means of forming 
his judgment, Mr, Everett thought could be accomplished 
only by preventing the secession of the important slave 
States which had not yet determined upon that step. Nor 
can there be any question that he expressed the opinions of 
others, able from their position to give the turn to affairs, 
as well as his own, when he wrote to the Boston committee, 
that it was preposterous " to expect to hold fifteen States in 
the Union by force," and that " the idea of a civil war, ac- 
companied as it would be by a servile insurrection, is too 
monstrous to be entertained for a moment." The eventual 
result of secession and the non-occurrence of servile insur- 
rection do not change the face of the question. As Mr. Ev- 
erett states the aspect of the case, it so presented itself at 
the time. Indeed, great uncertainty hung upon men's minds, 
in regard to the j^robable situation in the future. Evidently 
Congress was not disposed to assume the responsibility of inau- 
gurating war, whatever turn affairs might take, since it pur- 
posely omitted to make any provision for such an event. 
Indeed, towards the close of the session, a series of resolu- 
tions was passed by the House of Representatives, which 
betokened any thing rather than a disposition for war. They 
adopted some of the measures recommended by the Peace 
Conference, but said nothing of the compromise line and 
slavery in the territories. But the first of the series indicates 
their spirit. It was as follows : 

" That the existing discontents among the Southern people, and the growing 
hostility to the Federal Government among them, are greatly to be regretted ; 
and that whether such discontents and hostility are without just cause or not, any 



438 OEiGEsr OF the late wae. 

reasonable, proper, and constitutional remedies, and additional and more 
specific guarantees of tlieir peculiar rights and interests, as recognized by the 
Constitution, necessary to preserve the peace of the country and the perpe- 
tuity of the Union, should be promptly and cheerfully granted.'''' 

This was surely the right spirit to entertain and to mani- 
fest, in the midst of a domestic quarrel which was on the 
eve of coming to blows ; and it may be considered certain that, 
if a similar spirit had prevailed at an early period of the 
session, the foundation, at least, would have been laid for an 
amicable adjustment of the controversy. The whole series 
passed the House by a vote of 136 to 53, which was more 
than a two-thirds majoi-ity, although more than half of the 
Southern members had already relinquished their seats. To 
be sure it was rather late for mere resolves ; but even these, 
though passed as "joint resolutions," and, therefore, requir- 
ing the concurrence of the Senate, failed of gaining any no- 
tice in that body, until during the haste and confusion of the 
few last hours of the final night of the session, and then were 
not even put to vote. 

So far as any definite idea of the policy proposed by the 
new administration could be gathered from the inaugural 
address of the President, it certainly seemed as pacific in 
spirit as that indicated by the action of the House. A sm- 
gle passage of this address will exhibit its general tone, and 
is of much importance, in view of transactions shortly af- 
terwards to take place. Mr. Lincoln stated it as — 

" Only the declared purpose of the Union, that it will constitutionally ma?n- 
tain and defend itself In doing this, there need be no bloodshed or violence, 
and there shall be none, imless it is forced upon the national authority. 
The power confided to me wiU be used to hold, occupy, and possess the 
property and places belonging to the Government, and collect the duties and 
imposts ; but, beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be 
no invasion, no using of force against or among people anywhere. 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the 
momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can 
have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors." 

It is difficult to conceive how much less than this could 
have been said by the Chief Magistrate, under the existing 



PK0FESSI0N3 OF THE ADMESTISTKATION. 439 

circumstances ; or liow any thing could have been said, unless 
it were an absolute allowance of the right of secession, less 
calculated to bring about hostile collision between the United 
States and the States which had formed the Southern Con- 
federacy. Language could hardly set forth more explicitly 
the attitude assumed by the administration. Its profession 
simply wag that it wovdd, as it was bound to do, " con- 
stitutionally maintain and defend " the Union ; and that it 
would not " assail " those already in open revolt against it. 
It declared that there should be " no invasion, no using of 
force " against the latter, except so far as might be necessary 
in order " to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places 
belonging to the Government, and collect the duties and im- 
posts ; " in a word, that there need be and should be " no 
bloodshed and violence," unless those in secession should be 
themselves " the aggressors." 

It might be thought, indeed, that this official declaration 
was somewhat inconsistent with itself; since, although duties 
and imposts might certainly be collected outside of the 
several harbors, yet how to "hold, occupy, and possess" 
property and jDlaces already in the forcible possession of the 
others, except by "using of force," presented a difficult 
problem. Yet the language seemed to be chosen with care, 
and the expression — " to recover," instead of " to hold, oc- 
cupy, and possess," as preliminaiy to the latter phrases — 
appeared to be purposely omitted. And, in order to appreci- 
ate the full force of this declaration, it is necessary to remem- 
ber that, at the time it was made, all " property and places 
belonging to the Government," within the limits of the se- 
ceded States, except the fortifications in Charleston harbor, 
and two or three forts outside of the sea-coast, had been al- 
ready seized, and were in the possession of the Confederates. 
So far as the external appearance of things was concerned, 
there was really no difference between the policy of the new 
administration, up to the fall of Fort Sumter, and that which 
had been pursued by its predecessor. In fact, it could not 
but be thought, that the administration had determined to 



440 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

adopt a temporiziBg, as well as a conciliatory policy, in the 
hope and expectation of thus eventually effecting a restora- 
tion of the Union without hostile collision. This construc- 
tion was made certain by the terms of Mr. Lincoln's reply to 
certain commissioners of Virginia, who waited upon him on 
the 13th of April, the day succeeding the attack on Fort jj 
Sumter. They had, of course, been appointed previously to 
that event; but the Border States had become troubled at 
the military jDreparations which were notoriously going for- • 
wai'd under the direction of the authorities of the United 
States. These commissioners presented to the President cer- 
tain resoliitions of the State Convention from which they 
derived their appointment, as follows : 

Whereas, In the opinion of this Convention, the uncertainty which pre- 
vails in the public mind as to the poUcy which the Federal Executive in- 
tends to pursue towards the seceded States, is extremely injurious to the 
industrial and commercial interests of the country, tends to keep up an excite- 
ment which is unfavorable to the adjustment of the pending difficulties, and 
threatens a disturbance of the public peace ; therefore — 

Resolved, That a committee of three delegates be appointed to wait on 
the President of the United States, present to him this preamble, and respect- 
fully ask him to communicate to this Convention the policy which the Federal 
Executive intends to pursue in regard to the Confederate States. 

Mr. Lincoln received these gentlemen, and in reply, 
amongst other things of less moment, referring to his Inaugu- 
ral Address, remarked : 

"By the words, 'property and places belonging to the Government,' I 
chiefly allude to the military posts and property which were in the possession 
of the Government wJien it came into my hands. But if, as now appears to 
be true, in pursuit of a purpose to drive the United States authority from 
those places, an unprovoked attack has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall 
hold myself at liberty to repossess it, if I can, and also, like places which had 
been seized before the Government was devolved upon me ; and, in any event, I 
shall, to the best of my ability, repel force by force. 

" In case it proves that Fort Sumter has been assaulted, as is reported, I 
shall, perhaps, cause the United States mails to be withdrawn from aU the 
States which claim to have seceded, believing that the comm^encement of actual 
war against the Government, which justifies, and possibly, demands it. * * 
Whatever else I may do for the purpose, I shall not attempt to collect the 



PROFESSIONS OF SECEDEES. 441 

duties and imposts, hij any armed invasion of any part of the country ; not 
meaning by this, however, that I may not land a force deemed necessary to re- 
lieve a fort upon the border of the country." 

This was sufficiently railcl. Why Mr. Lincoln intimated 
any want of absohite certainty, in regard to the assault on 
Fort Sumter, must be a matter of some conjecture. But he 
had received the infoi-mation on this point, by which the 
whole North was on the instant profoundly surprised and 
aifected, with a degree of composure, according to the pub- 
lished accounts of the day, scarcely consistent with emotions 
natural enough, when iinexj^ected nev,'^ had just reached him, 
communicating an event so startling and momentous as the 
commencement of actual war. 

But since such was the character and effect of this affair, 
the question recurs — How far history, upon a review of the 
actual incidents attending it, would be justified in pronounc- 
ing it an " unprovoked attack ? " Mr. Lincoln was certainly 
professing, all the while, as pacific intentions as were con- 
sistent with his position. On the other hand, professions, in 
correspondence with such peaceable views, were made, in a 
very marked manner, at the same period, by the commis- 
sioner despatched to Maryland, from the Mississippi State 
Convention. Proceeding from such a body in a State, one 
of the citizens of Avhich was soon chosen for their President 
by the Confederates, it can hardly be supposed that this 
commissioner was not familiar with the purposes actually 
contemplated ; and his explanation of them is frank and ex- 
plicit enough, whatever may be thought of the feasibility of 
the plan thus revealed by him : 

"Secession is not intended to break up the present Government, but to 
perpetuate it. We do not propose to go out by way of breaking up or de- 
stroying the Union, as our fathers gave it to us, but we go out for the purpose 
of getting further guarantees and security for our rights — not by a convention 
of all the Southern States, nor by congressional tricks, which have failed in 
times past, and will fail again. But our plan is for the Southern States to 
withdraw from the Union for the present, to allow amendments to the Con- 
stitution to be made, guaranteeing our just rights ; and if the Northern 
States will not make those amendments, by which these rights shall be se- 
19* 



442 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

cured to us, llien we must secure them the best way we can. This question 
of slavery must be settled now, or never. The country has been agitated by 
it for the past twenty or thirty years. It has been a festering sore upon the 
body politic, and many remedies having failed, we must try amputation to 
bring it to a healthy state. We must have amendments to the Constitntion ; 
and if we cannot get them, we must set up for ourselves." ' 

Of course, the administration could not but understand, 
upon an open avowal like this, and through other authentic 
sources of information, that such was the j^lan actually enter- 
tained. Indeed, the passages already cited from Mr. Lin- 
coln's Inaugural Address necessarily confirm this view of the 
subject. Forty days had actually elapsed between the in- 
auguration and the demonstration in Charleston harboi*, 
without a hostile movement. Extensive military jjrepara- 
tions had been made, by the appropriate departments of the 
Government, during that period ; but these were not incon- 
sistent with the President's qualified declaration of the pur- 
pose of the Union simply " to maintain and defend itself" — 
without "invasion," or "using of force against any people 
anywhere." Preparations much more extensive and com- 
plete, for a long time previously, had been going forward 
also, on the Southern side. But, however violent measures 
may have been contemplated, as possibly unavoidable in the 
last resort, it is obvious that, during several weeks after the 
incoming of the new administration, on its own part, and on 
that of the Confederate leaders, the wish, the hope, and the 
expectation were predominant for a future peaceable adjust- 
ment of the pending controversy — which the j)reamble of the 
Virginia Convention somewhat naively stated — " threatens a 
disturbance of the public peace." In fact, the policy of the 
new administration, for the forty days immediately succeed- 
ing its inauguration, could not be distinguished from that of 
Mr. Buchanan. It certainly did not exceed it during that 
period, in ostensibly hostile spii-it or demonstration. 

In order properly to appreciate the circumstances attend- 
ing the assault on Fort Sumter, it is necessary to bear in 

' Quoted m Shaffner's "Secession War," published in London in 1862. 



SITUATION OF FOET SUMTEE. 443 

mind the pacific intentions thus professed on both sides, and 
the language of the Inaugural Address, in connection Avith 
the fact, that all the public places within the Confederate 
States, except Fort Sumter, and Fort Pickens .at Pensacola, 
Florida, had been already seized, at the time of the inaugu- 
ration of Mr. Lincoln — though, of course, no claim of right, 
on the part of the Confederates, was intended to be or was 
admitted by ])ira. Soon after the 4th of Marcl], certain com- 
missioners, in behalf of those representing the Confederates, 
at Montgomery, Alabama, repaired to Washington for the 
purpose of negotiating the evacuation of those forts. Only 
the one first mentioned shortly afterwards became the object 
of special interest ; and, in regard to that celebrated fortifi- 
cation, the question resolves itself into this proposition — 
Whether, considering its actual situation, it did not come 
within the spirit of the rule of action laid down in the In- 
augural Address. There seems no good reason why tlie 
motives for the temj^orary abandonment of other forts, and 
of arsenals, and public property in general, in the seceded 
States, should not be equally applicable to Fort Sumter, if it 
were not in a condition to be successfully defended. If it 
were, the matter might jDresent itself in a somewliat different 
light ; though not necessarily, if the object were to avoid 
collision. It was situated in the centre of Charleston harbor, 
closely besieged by batteries at various points, and feebly 
garrisoned. An attempt to furnish it with supplies, by an 
unarmed, transport, near the close of Mr. Bj.ichanan's adminis- 
tration, had been rej^elled by the fire of those batteries; 
though no obstacles were thrown in the way of j^rocuring 
provisions from the markets of Charleston, at least until a few 
days before the final assault. At a Cabinet consultation, it 
had been determined, with the concurrence of General Scott, 
then chief in military command, that the reenforcement of 
the fort, in the face of resistance, was impracticable. This 
view resulted from tlie character of the harbor, which denied 
access to ships-of-war of more than moderate capacity, as 
abundantly appeared afterwards, during the long siege of the 



444 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAR. 

city, in the jDrogress of the war ; and other vessels, after the 
example of the " Star of the West," could only he expected 
to meet with disaster, in attempting to run by the Latteries. 
Besides, an endeavor to throw troops into the fort, " using 
force " would be manifestly an " armed invasion," inconsist- 
ent with the official announcement of his intentions by the 
President. 

Such seemed to be the view of the matter taken by the 
administration. It had been certainly a subject of wonder 
with many persons, that a strong body of troops had not 
been ordered to the fortifications of Charleston harbor, before 
the secession of South Carolina took place. It could then 
have been the ground of no plausible comjDlaint, whatever 
else might have been the effect of such a demonstration, 
under the existing circumstances. But to retain a slight 
garrison now in the fort, in its own critical situation and in 
the critical condition of the times, appeared at least useless, 
and in many points of view scarcely in accordance with the 
ostensible policy of the administration. And however revolt- 
ing to the national pride might be the idea of giving np this 
piece of national property to those who were in a state of 
practical hostility to the United States, yet, in its present 
condition, it could render no service to the nation, while its 
temporary abandonment would be one important means of 
checking the further advance of the rebellion, and thus tend 
to the substantial national welfare. For it was not until 
after the bombardment of this fort, that Virginia, Tennes- 
see, Arkansas, and North Carolina, deeming the expedition 
to Charleston an act of war, joined the States already in 
secession, and that Kentucky declared its purpose to remain 
neutral. 

Mr. Campbell, of Alabama, who had resigned his posi- 
tion as .one of the justices of the Supreme Coui-t of the United 
States, when the State in which he resided declared for seces- 
sion, was the organ of communication, at Washington, between 
the Department of State and the Confederate commissioners. 
His account of his negotiation has been before the public, 



THE FLEET OFF CHAKLESTON. 445 

aud has not been contradicted upon any known authority. 
He stated that Mr. Seward authorized him to give assurances 
to tlie Southern commissioners that Fort Sumter would he 
evacuated. This assurance appears to have been repeated, 
on various occasions, and at length with the statement that the 
fort Avould be immediately evacuated. On the seventh of April, 
Mr. Campbell, having learned, doubtless, that ships-of-war 
were in motion at New York and elsewhere, and hearing the 
rumors at Washington, addressed a note, indicating bis un- 
easiness, to the Secretary of State, and received the explicit 
reply : " Faith as to Sumter fully kept — wait aud see." ^ On 
the twelfth of April, a fleet, consisting of two sloops-of-war, a 
steam cutter, and three steam transports appeared off Charles- 
ton harbor, and remained at anchor in the offing, inactively, 
during the assavilt which ensued. It is well known that upon 
the appearance of this fleet, a message Avas despatched to 
Montgomery for orders, to which the reply was, to demand 
the surrender of the fort, and to reduce it if compliance with 
the demand were refused. Upon Major Anderson's refusal, 
the bombardment began. 

Whether the appearance of this fleet, under the circum- 
stances, could be considered a pacific or a hostile demonstra- 
tion, may be left to inference. Whether its total'inaction, 
during the fierce bombardment of the fort and its defence, 
contimied for days, and until its final suiTcnder, justly bears 
the aspect of an intention to avoid the charge of " aggression," 
and to give the whole afiair the appearance of defence merely, 
may also be referred to the judgment of the reader. The 
question also occurs — whether this sudden naval demonstra- 
tion was not such a palpable violation of the promise — 
" faith as to Sumter fully kept " — as to be an unmistakable 
menace of " aggression," if not absolute aggression in itself. 
For these inquiries are not to be settled upon the basis of the 
abstract right or duty of the Government to adopt one line 
of conduct or another, in its own support ; but, in reference 

' See journals of the day. 



4:4:6 OEIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

to the position in which it had placed itself, to the under- 
standing between the parties, and to the whole circumstances 
of the actual case in hand. It should also be considered that 
when the fleet came to anchor off Charleston bar, it was well 
known that many other and larger vessels-of-war, attended by- 
transports containing troops and surf-boats, and all the neces- 
sary means of landing forces, had already sailed from Northern 
ports — " destination unknown" — and that very considerable 
time must have been requisite to get this expedition ready 
for sea, during the period that assui-ances had been so repeat- 
edly given of the evacuation of the fort. It bore the aspect, 
certainly, of a manoeuvre, which military persons, and some- 
times, metaphorically, politicians, denominate " stealing a 
march," It was generally thought at the North that the 
attack on Fort Sumter was a desperate, if not a treacherous 
deed ; but it w^as considered at the South as the repulse of a 
threatened assault ui^on Charleston, involving an ostensible 
breach of faith by a responsible officer and agent of the ad- 
ministration. 

Certain exti'acts from leading journals of the day, will 
tend to throw considerable light on this subject. The regu- 
lar telegraphic despatch from Washington to the New York 
JSerald, of April 7th, contains the following announcement : 

" Despatches received here to-day from Montgomery render it perfectly cer- 
tain that no attack ■will be made by the Confederate troops on either Fort 
Sumter or Fort Pickens. President Davis is determined that this administra- 
tion shall not place him in a false position, by making it appear to the world 
that the South are the aggressors. This has been and still is the policy of 
Mr. Lincoln. It will not be successful. Unless Mr. Lincoln's administration 
make the first demonstration and attack, President Davis says there will be no 
collision or bloodshed. With the Lincoln administration^ therefore, rests the 
responsibility of jyrecipitatinff a collision, and the fearful evils of protracted 
civil war." 

Making all due allowance for the occasionally sj)eculative 
character of despatches from newspaper correspondents, yet 
tliis appears to be consistent with the professions and the ac- 
tion, on both sides, except in regard to those aggressions 
already committed by the peoj^le of the several States, Avbich 



STATEMENTS OF NEWSPAPEKS. 447 

had been partially condoned by the terms of the Inaugui-al 
Address, No act of violence had been committed by author- 
ity of the Confedei'ate Government, since its organization on 
the ninth of February; and both parties seemed to be seek- 
ing to avoid " aggression." The New York j)apers of April 
8th contained the subjoined statement, showing the prevalent 
opinion at Charleston in regard to the situation : 

"The Charleston Courier, of Friday last (Api-il 5th), received here, says: 
' That, from the best informed quarter, there is reason to believe that, in a 
few days, leave of absence vrill be granted for an indefinite period to the en- 
tire command at Fort Sumter." 

On the same 8th of April, however, the New York Tribune, 
much more likely than any other newspaper, at that time, to 
obtain accurate information of the purposes entertained at 
Washington, printed the following passage among its de- 
spatches of the Vth of Aj^ril from the capital : 

" In a word. Major Anderson is not to he vnthdrawn, and he is to he pro- 
visioned, as was prefigured in my last despatch." 

This Avas on the day that Mr. Campbell addressed his 
final inquiry to Mr. Seward. On the tenth of the same month, 
two days before the bombardment occurred, in an editorial 
article, the Tribune made the following explicit declaination : 

" We are enabled to state, xo'ith positive certainty, that the principal ob- 
ject of the military and naval expedition which has sailed from this harbor, 
within tlic past four days, is the relief of Fort Sumter" 

In this connection, the following passage extracted from 
an editorial article in the New York Herald — than which no 
paper was more assiduous in the collection of information 
from all quarters — cannot but be considered highly explana- 
tory of the deliberate purpose for which the expedition was 
despatched to the harbor of Charleston. The passage appears 
in the number of that journal for May 11th, after opinions 
had become more settled upon the subject, and after a very 
considerable change had- been manifested in the expression 
of its own opinions in regard to the national situation : 

" The demonstration wliich precipitated the attack on Fort Sumter waa 
resolved upon to prove to the country and the world the true character and 



448 ORIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

objects of the rebellion. It was, in fact, the fir-t tangible evidence we had 
that the Government had a policy, and tbe success with which it has been 
attended has inspired more confidence in its ability to carry us through our 
present difficulties." 

A comparison of this passage should be made with the 
telegraphic message from Washington to the same paper of 
April 7th. But if this statement of the Herald is to be be- 
lieved, it cannot be doubted that the new policy at length 
adoj)ted by the administration was developed by the expedi- 
tion to Charleston ; that it was a decisive deviation from its 
formerly declared policy ; and that it was intended to " draw 
the fire" of the Confederates, and was a silent aggression, with 
the object of producing an active aggression from the other 
side. It was in this manner that the determinate issue of 
peace or war was finally reached. 

It would be extremely uncharitable towards Mr. Seward, 
and not less unjust, to imagine that he made any engagement 
which he did not intend to fulfil. The Rei^ublican news- 
l^apers of the day pretended, by way of palliation, that his 
promises were given only in his private capacity, and not as 
Secretary of State. But this theory was, of course, un- 
tenable ; for although the administration declined to recog- 
nize, officially, the several sets of commissioners who appear- 
ed at Washington, either on the part of some Southern State, 
or from Montgomery, yet Mr. Seward could only treat 
with them at all, on matters affecting the interests of the 
United States and those of its revolted citizens, as Secretary 
of State. But the truth undoubtedly was, that he had over- 
rated his own immediate influence, and believed it would be 
in his power to carry out the policy which had been sub- 
stantially laid down in the Inaugural Address. But now 
were felt the full effects of the unhappy composition of the 
Republican party, and of bringing men together in a political 
organization, for a merely political object, whose views were 
so utterly at variance as to the ulterior ends to be answered 
by a successful election. Undoubtedly Mr. Lincoln was sin- 
cerely desirous of maintaining the Union. Every sentiment 



COMPOSITION' OF THE CABINET. 449 

and motive would prompt him to prevent its disruption, and 
to take no steps tending towards a diss(51ution, wliich would 
be imputed to the fact of his own elevation to the office of 
President. But the claims of party had required him to con- 
sult the several factions of the party in tlie selection of his 
cabinet. Mr. Seward himself, Mr.' Smith, Secretary of the 
Interior, and Mr. Bates, the Attorney General, were as con- 
servative as it was possible for men connected with tlie Re- 
publican party to be. Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, 
and Mr. Blair, Postmaster General, represented the extreme 
radical wing ; while, of the two remaming members, Mr. 
Cameron, Secretary of War, and Mr. Welles, Secretary of the 
Navy, neither of them persons of very marked characteristics, 
it may be only necessary to say here, that the naval and 
military expedition to the Southern coast was fitted out under 
the authority of their several Departments. 

It is evident tliat Mr. Lincoln, on this first and fatal occa- 
sion, as upon others afterwards, yielded to "pressure." Mr. 
Seward had no choice but to submit, and was unable to afford 
any explanation in regard to the discrepancy between the 
policy at first declared and that finally adopted, without a 
betrayal of cabinet secrets, which could not but result in the 
dissolution of the cabinet, would necessarily divide the party, 
and possibly might lead to the overthrow of the administra- 
tion itself. An article in the editorial columns of the New 
York Herald, of April 25th, gave indications, at least, of the 
state of sentiment in the cabinet after the bombardment of 
Foi't Sumter. 

" There are rumors here that Mr. Lincoln does not hke the smell of gun- 
powder ; that Mr. Seward would rather let the seceded States- go than fight 
them, and tliat Mr. Secretary Chase thinks it would be the best antislavery 
policy to turn them adrift." 

But on April 27th the same paper published an article 
still more significant. It was headed " Opposition of the 
Republican Journals," and thus made manifest the uneasy 
state of mind in the Republican ranks : 



450 OBIGIN OF. THE LATE WAE. 

" What is the matter with the Republican journals of New York ? "What 
do they want ? They continue to be deeply dissatisfied with the President 
and his cabinet. Some want Seward removed ; some desire to oust Chase ; 
some to get rid of the cabinet at one fell swoop. Some even insist upon 
having the President himself superseded to make room for a Cromwell, or a 
military dictator." 

There can be no doubt that the pressure from these quar- 
ters had been very great, ever since the day of the inaugura.- 
tion. The radicals had been utterly disgusted Avith the plac- 
able tone and indecisive policy exhibited by Mr. Lincoln's 
address, and had made their disappointment and dissatisfac- 
tion emj^hatically known. But, sad result, indeed, of a junc- 
tion of conservatives with radicals — while the former gener- 
ally remained at home engaged in their own aifairs, the other 
smaller faction of the party, through their newspapers and 
agents, kept up the ." pi'cssure," and had almost altogether 
the clean sweep of the iield. It is not, perhaps, so surprising 
as deplorable, that they should have been able to bring about 
some change of policy in a divided administration, which 
was weak, of course, through its own inherent antagonisms. 
It must be remembered, that the State governments, as the 
result of the preceding election, were in the hands of Repub- 
lican officials, who were generally in close alliance with the 
radical managers of the party. Northern Governors and 
Congressmen, and politicians of this class, were constantly 
going and coming between their places of residence and 
Wasliington, untiringly employed in eiforts to make the 
President and his Secretaries as " stiff-backed " as those 
whom they had wished for as representatives of the States, 
at the Peace Conference. They were in mortal fear of losing 
all which they had hoped to gain as the fruits of the election ; 
afraid that there would be no war, no emancipation, no dis- 
solution of the Union ; in a word, that, remembering he was 
in a decided minority at the election, and knowing that at 
least three-quarters of the whole people anxiously desired 
peace, the President was only too likely to place himself in 
the hands of the conservative masses and to effect a settle- 



POSITIVE CAUSES OF THE WAR. 451 

ment, at last, with tlie seceded States, which would put an 
end, and forever, to the " agitation " upon which the radical 
leaders had so long lived and flourished. For it was plain, 
that an adjustment effected with the South would preclude, 
for all future time, the interference of the North with the 
institution of slavery ; and that, upon the ratification of such 
adjustment, the conservative majorities of the North and the 
South would become united again, and much more firmly 
united than ever before, in support of the Constitution and 
for tlie perpetuation of the Union. 

It has thus been shown, in some detail, that radical influ- 
ences at the North unfriendly to the Constitution and the 
Union, at work through a long series of years, and gradually 
inflaming the passions and moulding the sentiments of the 
people of the South, at length had the effect to place the 
Southern States in an attitude of hostility to the United 
States. In like manner the same baleful influences, as soon 
as the i^rospect of adjustment and peace, and eventually of 
renewed union, threatened disaj^pointment to purposes so 
long cherished, and finally affording some promise of fruition, 
induced that change of policy which resulted in a hostile 
demonstration and " precipitated " the war. The positive 
causes of the war may be briefly summed up, as having con- 
sisted of that kind and degree of long-continued aberration 
from the principles of the Constitution, and its weak and 
false popular indulgence, against which the peoi^le were so 
affectionately and sagaciously warned by the injunctions of 
the Father of his Country, Avhose exj^ostulations Avere so 
often repeated in spii'it and in substance by the most illus- 
trious citizens, in both sections, for many successive years.' 

' See Appendix VI. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Object of this Volume. — Except for Causes arising in the North, any Attempt at Secession 
in the South would have been impossible.— Two Important Questions remaining after 
the War. — The Speediest Restoration best for the Wliole Country. — The Radical Policy. 
— The Emancipation Question. — An Illustration of Radical Policy from Spanish His- 
tory four hundred Tears ago. — The End of the Republican Movement corresponds with 
its Beginning. — What would have been the Condition of the Country, if Emancipation 
had taken place when the Constitution was adopted — The same Motive which led 
the Radical Managers to " precipitate " the War induces them to oppose Restoration. — 
The Question must soon be — " Whether we will have a reestablished Constitution and a 
true Union, or a Government of Laws and not of Men" .... 

It has been the object of tliis volume to trace the dh-ect 
and indirect causes which led to the war. Less pains has 
been taken to exhibit in special detail the well-known senti- 
ments, or the political demonstrations of detennined seces- 
sionists at the South, either before or after those causes had 
accumulated and had become the basis of their action. Ex- 
cept for those causes it is plain that the promoters of seces* 
sion would have had nq ground, of action, and could have 
made no such appeal to the people of the South, as to enlist 
them in a transaction so momentous as ojjen rebellion against 
the Government of the country ; or could have persuaded 
them that their interests and rights demanded of them the 
perils and sacrifices necessarily involved in such an attempt. 
Excej)t for their belief in the existence and operation of those 
causes, and of the danger to their rights and interests which 
they conceived were thus threatened, any effort for secession 
must necessarily have been an object simj-jly of derision in 
the Southern States, and any active movement in that direc- 
tion would have been summarily put. down by the South 
without calling to its aid a single man from the North. 



THE PKESENT SITUATION. 453 

Upon these grounds, therefore, it was, and from such motives, 
that the country, against the decided and general wishes of 
the people, was finally betrayed into a war for the Union, by 
conspirators against the Union. 

. But now that the war itself is at an end, two very im- 
portant questions yet remain for the solution of the Ameri- 
can people. 

What is to be the permanent loss or gain to the country 
by reason of the war ? 

"What obstacles, if any, are in the way of its permanent 
restoration to the state before the war? 

The superior power of the United States having been 
completely vindicated by the final result of the great strug- 
gle, the submission of the South is necessarily equivalent to 
an abandonment of all further purpose of resistance. This 
j)Osture of affairs,a:nong a kindred people of " sister States," 
surely ought to be sufficient — for why should there be " a tribe 
lacking in Israel " ? And since that submission, whether 
voluntary or involuntary, must be complete to all practical 
pui-poses, then the speediest possible restoration of the South 
ern States to equal rights under the. Constitution is for the 
highest interest of the whole country, if the Union is to be, 
and to remain a republic of equal rights, in conformity with 
its own organic law. In that event, the loss will b*e but that 
of the life and property which the accomplishment of that end 
required ; while the gain will be the more stable and lasting 
settlement of the Union upon a constitutional basis. In any 
other event, the whole country sufiers under the operation 
of an irregular, unequal, and disorganized system of govern- 
ment, which, for the common safety, ought not to be permit- 
ted to continue for a moment longer than the most unavoid- 
able necessity requires. For, so long as the condition of the 
States remains unequal, the stronger section occupies, at least, 
the attitude of a despot — the weaker that of a vassal. It 
would be a strange commentary upon the war, if in libera- 
ting negroes from slavery, its efiect should be to reduce white 
men to bondage ! So far as such a " policy " is insisted upon 



454 OKIGm OF THE LATE WAK. 

by the radicals, it must be seen whether they T^ere actuated 
by a sincere attachment to the principles of ciA'il liberty, or 
only by hostility to a portion of their fellow-citizens. By 
jDursuing such a policy the sections are practically divided, 
and consequently the whole country is loAvered in dignity 
and AYcakened in power. It is really keeping up disunion, 
under the specious pretext of protecting the Union, and is 
utterly at war with all truly republican principles. In order 
to maintain such a system against one section, the other 
must also be subjected to practical restraints, to which it has 
not been accustomed. In a word, only the name and the 
form of the old system would remain ; a central and practi- 
cally irresponsible power would be established, and the coun- 
try neither would be nor would deserve to be free.* 

* The " policy " urged by the radical leaders finds^a striking illustration 
in that practised towards the Moors in Spain, by Cardinal Ximenes, the fa- 
mous minister of Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1492. The following 
account of the afifair, after the fall of Granada, which brought to a close an 
insurrection in active operation for a period of nearly ten years, is from the 
third volume of Prescott's " Philip 11.," pp. '7, 8, 9 : 

" By the terms of the treaty of capitulation, the people of Granada were 
allowed to remain in possession of their religion, and to exercise its rites ; 
and it was expressly stipxilated that no inducements or menaces should be 
held out to effect their conversion to Christianity. * * * That extraor- 
dinary man. Cardinal Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo, was eager to try his 
own hand in the labor of conversion. Having received the royal assent, he 
set about the affair with characteristic ardor, and with as httle scruple as to 
the means to be employed, as the most zealous propagandist could have de- 
sired. When reasoning and expostulation failed, he did not hesitate to resort 
to bribes, and, if need were, to force. * * * Exasperated by the unscru- 
pulous measures of the prelate, and the gross violation they involved of the 
treaty, they (the Moors) broke out into an insurrection, which soon extended 
along the mountain ranges in the neighborhood of Granada. 

"Ferdinand and Isabella, alarmed at the consequences, were filled with 
indignation at the high-handed conduct of Ximenea But he replied that the 
state of things was precisely that which was most to he desired. By placing 
t/iemselves in an attitude of rebellion, tlie Moors had renounced all the advan- 
tages secured by the treaty, and had, moreovei; incurred the penalties of death 
and confiscation of property ! It would be an act of grace in the sovereigns 
to overlook their offence and grant an amnesty for the past, on condition that 



THE EMAJS'CIPATION QUESTION. 455 

It is of the utmost importance, also, in this view, that 
the people should have a clear uuderstancling of the emanci- 
pation question, and should know what is actually gained or 
lost in this relation. By the Constitution of the United States, 
every State has a right to permit slavery, if it see fit. It is 
not a question of State sovereignty, but of State rights, and 
one with which the United States has nothing whatever to do. 
The Act of Congress, therefore, of 1862, promising freedom 
to slaves who would abandon their master and come within 
our lines, was a merely hostile measure, without legislatiA'e 
force, any more than it had practical eifect. Mr. Lincoln 
said of it, in his famous interview with the Chicago divines, 
who solicited from him a proclamation of emancipation, " I 
cannot learn that that law has caused a single slave to come 
over to us." The proclamation, subsequently issued, was 
equally illegal and ineffective. Both measures were in entire 
derogation of the previous official declaration of both the 
President and of Congress. The late President said, in his 
Inaugural Address : 

" I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to 
do so ; and I have no inclination to do so." 

Immediately after the battle of Bull Run (July 23d, 1861), 
Congress resolved, by nearly a unanimous vote, that — 

" The war is waged by the Government of the United States, not in the 
spirit of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or in- 
terfering with the rights or institutions of the States; but to defend and 
maiatain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with 
all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired." 

every Moor should at once receive baptism or leave the country. Tim precious 
piece of casuistry, hardly stirpasscd by any thing in ecclesiastical annals, found 
favor m the eyes of the sovereigns, who, after the insurrection had been quelled, 
lost no time in proposing the terms suggested by their minister, as the only 
terms of reeonciliatioa open to the Moors." 

Compare with this the propositions recently introduced into Congress by Mr. 
Sumner and others (December 4th, 1805, after about four hundred years of 
fcnlighteument and progress, smce the day of Cardinal Ximenes). Compare 
ulso the conduct of the radical leaders in inciting the causes of the war. 



456 OEIGUSf OF THE LATE WAE. 

Whatever slaves, therefore, were freed in fact, during the 
war, were freed, not by the operation of law, or by the effect 
of any decree ; but as an accident of the war, by the passage 
of a superior force through certain portions of the slave 
States, the march of which they joined either voluntarily, or 
because they had no other resource, in consequence of the 
devastation of the country. And the question goes much 
deeper than any mere fact of emancipation, by accident or 
otherwise ; since it involves the original, present, and future 
state-right of every State of the Union, to hold slaves, or to 
establish any other organized system of labor for an excep- 
tional class of the population which the States themselves 
may choose. The ijroclamation of the late President, and 
the Acts of Congress in relation to this subject, are, of course, 
admitted to be nugatory, by the requirement of the present 
administration, for the constitutional adoption of the amend- 
ment proposed for this purpose. If this amendment be vol- 
iiutarily acceded to by the States, and not under duress, the 
embarrassment by which the proceeding would be otherwise 
attended is removed. For the question may well arise, of 
what validity is a constitutional provision, obtained by the 
force of dictation, on the part of either civil or military 
authority ? Or, adopted by conventions representing but a 
handful of the people ? Or, in States, whose position in the 
Union is so unsettled, that they are without representation 
in the Congress of the United States ? 

On the other hand, it should be remarked, that the fact 
of emancipation makes no difference to the moral or philo- 
sophical aspect of the case. The bestowal of civil freedom 
upon a large body of persons incapable of its rational use, 
certainly seems "contrary to reason. To accompany such an 
enfranchisement with the gift of privileges and powers, which 
imply in a republic, the exercise of the best intellectual and 
moral qualities of the citizen, would appear like either iucon- 
sideration or indifference to the best good of the State. If 
the negroes, as a class, are so constituted by nature, and, in 
this country, also by habit, that the use of freedom cannot 



EMANCIPATION KUIN TO THE NEGEO. 4:5Y 

but prove iujurious to themselves and others, and relatively 
to the whole system of civil polity, their enfranchisement, 
except as a matter of necessity, wovdd be an act of folly 
scarcely to be paralleled. If it throws upon their own re- 
sources the helpless beings, most of whom have little other 
resource than so to perish miserably, it becomes a great na- 
tional wrong, ^ 

In the mean time, the negro question is rapidly solving it- 
self^ — cruelly for the black man, prejudicially for the white. 
In fact, the unhappy black man is himself the principal suf- 
ferer. In a majority of cases, the master is undoubtedly 
relieved of a heavy burden by the emancipation of his slaves. 
K he had the benefit of the frequently capricious labor of his 
servants, he provided for their support in infancy and sick- 
ness and old age. The law required of him this care, and 
enforced its demand ; and interest, besides, to refer to no other 
motive, made it imperative upon him. In relieving the 
master, therefore, of this obligation, the negro is deprived of 
the Tegal countenance and protection which was its mutual 
condition. Indeed, emancipation can only mean, in general, 
deterioration, and the substantial extinction of the race — the 
white man's interest promoted, the black man's welfare 
totally overlooked or disregarded. And this decay of the 
race must be much more rapid in its progress than that of 
the aboriginal people of the land. For they had the horse, 
the shaft, the gun, the prairie, the hunting gi'ounds, tlie great 
rivers, and the ocean-lakes ; the warrior-couiKjil, often saga- 
cious and wise ; the tribal wars, bringing into action the best 
qualities, at least, of savage life, and the free heavens over 
their heads as they roamed whithersoever they would. But 

' Probably, no moje significant and forcible illustration of negro freedom 
could be offered, than by the following incident of 1865, related in the At- 
lanta (Ga.) Intelligencer, as told to the editor by a friend : 

" Coming," he says, " to Atlanta, on Monday last, I saw an old freed woman 
lying on the side of the road, dead, and two younger ones standing by her 
remains. I asked what had been the matter with her. The reply from one 
of the girls was, ' She perish to def, sir ; but she free dough.' " 
20 



458 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

the negro must cling forever to the white man, and to the 
white man's habitations. He must be always the inferior 
and the dependant — practically a slave, with none of the 
benefits or claims which such a condition imposes upon the 
superior. The lesson thus taught by the practical applica- 
tion of abolition may yet return to " plague the inventor." 

In fact, the end of the Republican movement has coi-re- 
Bponded with its beginning. Just as the Topeka constitution, 
adopted by the antislavery party in Kansas, and voted for 
by the entu-e Republican party in Congress, provided for the 
utter exclusion of the negro, whether bond or free, from the 
embryo State — so, in the emancipation finally forced upon 
him in the country at large, his own welfare has seemed to 
constitute no part of the motive of action. The real motive 
was obviously political, not philanthropical. So that an im- 
partial review of the whole subject may lead to the inevitable 
conclusion, that the views of those denounced as "proslavery 
men" were not only just to their Southern fellow-citizens, 
nnder the Constitution, but rational and humane, also ; while, 
judging the antislavery party by its conduct rather by its 
professions, it can only be thought that its " tender mercies 
are cruel." But in this view of the momentous question, it 
may not be unreasonable to imagine that, for the essential 
welfare of both races and of the entire country, the eventual 
convictions of an intelligent, moral, and religious peoj)le, will 
lead them to seek, at least, some substantial modification of 
any solution of it which has been yet reached. 

Let us imagine, for a moment, the condition of the coun- 
try, as it would have been, if the slaves had been made free 
upon the adoption of the Constitution. At that period, the 
South was richer by far than the North. It was the differ- 
ence between the genial climate and exuberant soil of the 
one, and the harsher elements with which nature had encom- 
passed the other. The moi'e profitable business of the South 
was agriculture, of the North commerce ; the one, developed, 
promoted, and controlled within itself; the other, subject to 
its inherent and proverbial chances, and the dictation or 



A REMINISCENCE. 459 

caprice of foreif^n j^owcrs. In the South, life was easy, pros- 
perous, and often careless ; in the North, it was commonly 
hard, and the returns of labor and enterprise were compara- 
tively small and difficult to obtain. Had the slaves been 
then liberated, they would doubtless have hung a burden 
upon their former owners ; yet one of far less account than 
now, since they were then scarcely more than an eighth part 
as numerous as they have subsequently become. With the 
enfranchisement of the slaves would have ceased also, upon 
the moment, the foreign traffic in slaves, instead of provision 
being made for its legalized continuance for a further term 
of twenty years, enriching the North which transported the 
negroes from Africa, and adding continually to the black 
population of the South. Doubtless, the Southern States 
would soon have established suitable municipal regulations, 
to counteract the constitutional indolence of the colored race, 
to compel them to labor, at a proper rate of remuneration, and 
to secure the benefits of their toil. It is manifest that, with 
such an organized system of comparatively uncostly labor, 
and favored by every natural advantage, the South must 
have gained still more rapidly than before upon the North, 
the chief activities of which were devoted to the uncertain 
and competing interests of commerce, and from the ungenial 
soil of which the farmer could hardly hope to obtain much 
more than enough for the comfortable subsistence of his 
family. But it is equally certain, that the extension of free- 
dom to the negro would have operated as a check of incalcu- 
lable force upon the struggling and doubtful fortunes of the 
common country. It might have thrown back its course of 
progress for very many years, if the republic thus could have 
survived at all. Perhaps it could not have survived, amid 
the fierce contests which then embroiled the nations ; since it 
was only by the use and development of the means it had 
then in possession, which soon became of such vast conse- 
quence to itself, and to other powers, that the young repub- 
lic was strengthened and its rapid advancement secured. In 
a word, the prosperity of the North owes its most effective 



460 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAE. 

impulse to the organized and compnlsoiy system of labor 
kept up at the South. The settlement of the West, to en- 
courage which Virginia and other Southern States had gen- 
erously given up to the common country the immense tracts 
of territory held by them, and now constituting many of the 
most jDOwerful States of the Union, was largely due to dis- 
couragements to labor at the North, before the establishment 
of its extensive manufacturing system. The vast product of 
the great staple of the South, by means of its amply suffi- 
cient mode of labor, suggested and furnished the foundation 
for those manufactures, which, for nearly half a century, 
have so j)romoted the foi'tunes of the North, and made it 
what it could never otherwise have been, the competitor of 
Europe in the markets of the world. 

There is really but a single obstacle to the restoration of 
the country to the state before the war. To effijct that res- 
toration should be the j^aramount object. It was for this 
object that the country fought ; and witliout keeping it con- 
spicuously in view, certainly it would have been impossible 
to set the war on foot, to any effective purpose, in the North. 
This obstacle results from precisely the sajne causes which 
led to the war. It is dread of Union between the former 
elements of union in the North and the South, involving the 
loss of political power by the radical Republicans themselves. 
But if slavery, as was formerly alleged, was the bond of al- 
liance between these elements, and that bond is broken — 
then, surely, there is no longer any reason for resistance to 
restoration, except the mere partisan desire to hold the au- 
thority of one section over the other, at the sacrifice of 
united sentiment between the main body of the people in both. 
But the result of unreasonable opposition must necessarily 
be, a thorough overturn of political organization in the 
North, and the reinstatement of a wiser, more magnanimous, 
more patriotic class of men in stations of honor and trust. 
Indeed, it seems evident that such a change of sentiment 
cannot be long deferred. In every sense and in every rela- 
tion, the coiratry is weakened by the f)resent state of things; 



THE QUESTION FOE THE COUNTRY. 461 

and the longer it continues, the more the clanger grows, of a 
gradual, but none the less fatal, revolution in the fundamental 
basis of the Republican system. It is to be hoped, indeed, 
that the reviving good sense and pati'iotic feeling of the 
Northern States will not long permit the whole country to 
suffer, by the unreasonable exclusion of the people of the 
South from the mut]iially beneficial enjoyment of equal rights. 
This would be a mistake similar to ^ that committed by the 
better-disposed men of the Republican organization, who 
Avanted no war, but yet allowed the country to be dragged 
into war, by the managing and mercenary politicians on the 
outskirts of their party. So that, in the end, many of the 
warmest friends of a peaceable Union felt themselves com- 
pelled to fight for a Union imperilled as well by the machi- 
nations of disunionists at the North as in the ^outh ; and those 
Noi'thern disunionists, when the war had lasted two years, and 
dragged heavily after McClellan was displaced, were com- 
pelled to assume the name which they had formerly so de- 
rided, and to profess themselves as of a " Union party," in 
order to spur public interest and to save the utter wreck 
w^hich all things foreboded, under the policy which they had 
thus far pursued. But, in any event, the course of policy 
now marked out by the radical leaders must necessarily, and 
for the welfare of the whole country, soon -transfer to the 
North a controversy so unreasonably kept up with the South, 
after its causes have ceased; and, perhaps, future elections 
may be decided uj)on wiser and broader principles than of 
late. 

And the final resolution of this point will test the whole 
question which has been in dispute. That question was, 
practically, not of bondage or emancipation for negroes, on 
their own account ; but whether, in solving this problem, the 
country itself should retain its ancient political rights and 
still be free, or should become subject to an arbitrary govern- 
ment, forced upon it by party action. For, whether negro 
slavery actually exist or not, the country can be neither 
free nor safe until this matter becomes again the individual 



462 OKIGIN OF THE LATE WAK. 

concern of the several States alone, without subjection to 
any interference whatever by the General Government. "We 
may say, that the South has lost its slaves by rebellion ; and, 
so far as this is a mere incident of fact, unavoidable by the 
fortunes of war, it would have no effect upon the question of 
constitutional liberty. We may say, that the South deserved 
to lose them by its revolt; but the important point is, 
whether, in their particular loss, suffered otherwise than as a 
passing incident of war, the whole body of States, and hence 
the country at large, does not thereby lose its own constitu- 
tional immunities. For national legislation to such an end, 
or executive dictation producing such a result, is revolution, 
not restoration ; without which the States cannot be equal, 
and, consequently, neither they, nor the country of which 
they are constituent parts, can be free. For such a revolu- 
tion changes the jDrinciple and practice of our Republican 
system, abrogates the constitution on which we should rest, 
and gives us practically, a consolidated, instead of a popular, 
frame of Government. Hence, therefore, the opposition of 
enlightened citizens, fi-iends of popular rights, to the whole 
(so-called) Republican movement, from its beginning to the 
end. That movement was compulsory, and therefore des- 
potic, and never had any title to the name of Republican. 

It would be an imputation hardly endurable upon the 
freemen of the American States, to suppose that they would 
long tamely suffer under the loss of public liberty necessarily 
involved in the centralization of power, which would be the 
effect of constituting the North the master of the South. 
There can be no real freedom to the United States, until the 
equality of all its States is reestablished ; and the best hope 
which an American citizen can indulge for the welfare of re- 
publican institutions is, for the coming of the time when an 
order of the President, outside of the prescribed sphere of his 
constitutional authority, will have no more force than an 
order of a justice of the peace — to the end, that it may again 
become, as it was originally instituted — " a government of 
laws and not of men." 



THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNION. 463 

There are those, doubtless, who, while no burden presses 
upon themselves individually, will see nothing in the 
future but the greatness and strength of a reinvigorated 
republic. There were those, in another age, who saw, 
or thought they saw, in the coming of the youthful 
3Iacedouian conqueror — if the lessening of Athens, yet the 
glory of Greece. But it was the death of liberty. It was 
the first fatal sweep of " decay's effacing fingers." It was 
the turn from freedom to despotism, from despotism to 
anarchy, and thence the subjection of the free States of Greece, 
as the province of a strange people. Then followed the de- 
cline from civilization to barbarism, and the " progress " 
bearing on, through ages of darkness, the inextinguishable 
light of a name. 

Indeed, this question must, ere long, present itself Avith 
an irresistible appeal to the rational minds of American 
freemen — whether they are willing that anti-republican in- 
stitutions shall be forced upon them in a Republican name 
— to submit themselves bound hand and foot, at the immi- 
nent peril of the inestimable bequest of their fathers, to the 
purposes of an incongruous organization, w^hose proper func- 
tions have ceased — or will confer together, exercise their rea- 
son, rise above a partisan Congress, should it prove such, and 
whatever other obstacles may be in their way, and place 
their country once more upon the free and solid foundation 
of the Constitution and the Union ; a Constitution, but a 
sheet of parchment Avithout an honest Union ; a Union, but 
a soulless name, without the reestablished Constitution. 
Thus only can the republic be " Peace." 



APPEISTDIX. 



THE EXTRACT BELOW IS FROM A WORK ENTITLED "THE SECESSION 
WAR IN AMERICA," BY MR. J. P. SHAFFNER. PUBLISHED IN LONDON 
AND NEW YORK, IN 1862. - 

" The following description of Southern life was written in 1822, by 
Major-General Quitman, a native of 'New York, to his father. As it 
was then, so it is now (18G2). The letter is full of truth : " 

Our bar is quartered at different country seats — not boarding ; a 
Mississippi planter would be insulted by such a proposal, but we are 
enjoying the hospitalities that are offered to us on all sides. The 
awful pestilence in the city brings out, in strong relief, the pecuhar 
virtues of this people. The mansions of the planters are thrown open 
to all comers and goers free of charge. Whole families have free 
quarters during the epidemic, and country wagons are sent daily to 
the verge of the smitten city with fowls, vegetables, etc., for gratuitous 
distribution to the poor. I am now writing fi-om one of these old man- 
sions, and I can give you no better notion of life at the South than by 
describing the routine of a day. The owner is the widow of a Vir- 
ginia gentleman of distinction — a brave officer who died in the public 
service during the last war with Great Britain. 

She herself is a native of this vicinity — of English parents, settled 
here in Spanish times. She is an intimate friend of my first friend, 
Mrs. G. ; and I have been in the habit of visiting her house ever since 
I came South. The whole aim of this excellent lady seems to be to 
make others happy. I do not beheve she ever thinks of herself. She 
is growing old, but her parlor is constantly thronged with the young 



APPENDIX. 465 

and gay, attracted by her cheerful and never-failing kindness. There 
are two large families from the city staying here ; and every day some 
ten or a dozen transient guests. Mint juleps in the morning are sent 
to our rooms, and then follows a delightful breakfast in the open 
verandah. Ve hunt, ride, iish, pay morning visits, play chess, read, 
or lounge until dinner, which is served at 2 p. m., in great variety, 
and most delicately cooked in what is here called Creole style — very 
rich, and many made or mixed dishes. In two hours afterwards, 
everybody, white and black, has disappeared. The whole household 
is asleep — the siesta of the Italians. The ladies retire to their apart- 
ments, and the gentlemen on sofas, settees, benches, hammocks, and 
often gypsy fashion, on the grass under the spreading oaks. Here, 
too, in fine weather, the tea-table is always set before sunset ; and 
then, until bedtime, we stroll, sing, play whist, or coquet. It is an 
indolent, yet charming life, and one quits thinking and takes to 
dreaming. 

This excellent lady is not rich, merely independent ; but by 
thrifty housewifery, and a good dairy and garden, she contrives to 
dispense the most liberal hospitality. Her slaves appear to be, in a 
manner, free, yet are obedient and polite, and the farm is well worked. 
"With all her gayety of disposition and fondness for the young, she is 
truly pious; and in her own apartments, every night, she has family 
prayers with her slaves ; one or more of them being often called on 
to sing and pray. When a minister visits the house, which happens 
very frequentlj", prayers night and morning are always said ; and on 
these occasions the whole household and the guests assemble in the 
parlor ; chairs are provided for the servants. They are married by 
a clergyman of their own color ; and a sumptuous supper is always 
prepared. On public holidays they have dinners equal to an Ohio 
barbacue; and Christmas, for a week or ten days, is a protracted 
festival for the blacks. They are a happy, careless, unreflecting, good- 
natured race ; who left to themselves would degenerate into di-ones 
or brutes; but, subjected to wholesome restraint and stimulus, become 
the best and most contented of laborers. They are strongly attached 
to " old massa " and " old missus ; "but their devotion to " young massa" 
and " young missus," amounts to enthusiasm. They have great family 
pride, and are the most arrant coxcombs and aristocrats in the world. 
At a wedding I witnessed here last Saturday evening, where some 
one hundred and fifty negroes were assembled — many being invited 
guests — I heard a number of them addressed as governors, generals, 
judges, and doctors (the titles of their masters) ; and a spruce, tigbt- 
20* 



466 APPENDIX. 

set darkey, wlio waits on me in town, was called "Major Quitman." 
The " colored ladies " are invariably Miss Joneses, Miss Smiths, or some 
such title. They are exceedingly pompous and ceremonious ; gloved 
and highly perfumed. The "gentlemen" sport canes, ruffles, and 
jewelry; wear boots and spurs; affect crape on their-hats, and carry 
huge segars. The belles wear gaudy colors, " tote " their fans with the 
air of Spanish senoritas ; and never stir out, though black as the ace 
of spades, without their parasols. 

In short, these ^'niggers," as you call them, are the happiest people 
I have ever seen ; and some of them, in form, features, and move- 
ments, ai'e real sultanas. So far from being fed on "salted cotton- 
seed," as we used to believe in Ohio, they are oily, sleek, bountifully 
fed, well clothed, well taken care of; and one hears them at all times 
whistling and singing cheerily at their work. They have an extra- 
ordinary facility for sleeping. A negro is a great night-walker. He 
will, after laboring all day in the burning sun, walk ten miles to a 
frolic, or to see his "Dinah," and be at home and at his work by day- 
light the next morning. This would knock up a white man or an 
Indian. But a negro will sleep during the day — sleep at his work — 
sleep on the carriage box — sleep standing up ; and I have often seen 
them sitting bareheaded in the sun on a high rail-fence, sleeping as 
securely as though lying in bed. They never lose their equipoise; 
and wiU carry their cotton baskets, or their water vessels, filled to 
T;he brim, poised on their heads, walking carelessly and at a rapid rate, 
without spilling a drop. The very weight of such burdens would 
crush a white man's brains into apoplexy. 

Compared with the ague-smitten and suffering settlers that you 
and I have seen in Ohio, or the sickly and starved operatives we 
read of in factories and in mines, these Southern slaves are indeed to 
be envied. They are' treated with great humanity and kindness. 



APPENDIX. 467 



n. 

FEOM "EEMAEKS ON THE EEVIEW OF INCHlQUm'S LETTERS," AT- 
TEIBUTED TO EEV. DR. TIMOTHY DWIGHT, PRESIDENT OF YALE 
COLLEGE. P. SO, el seq. 

Your next remarks are on The slavery of tlie Blacks in the South- 
ern States: a sulyect wliicli you have touched upon before, and in the 
mention of which you must be confessed to be unhappy. I do not 
mean in censuring the African slave trade, or the manner in which 
the slaves are treated.' To these subjects I make you cordially wel- 
come. They are the proper themes of every moralist ; and no sever- 
ity with which they are treated wiH draw from me a single animad- 
version. It is the attribution of these iniquities to the Americans^ 
■with an intention to make them a characteristical disgrace peculiar to 
them^ of which I complain. Surely, when you wrote this passage, you 
forgot how lately you have begun to wash yourself clean from tliis 
smoke of the bottomless pit. Please, sir, to take a short trip to Liver- 
pool, and survey the hulks, which, probably, in great numbers, are 
even now rotting in the docks of that emporium of African commerce. 
Then look around upon the numerous splendid buildings, public aud 
private. Next, exclaim, " These ships were the prisons in which hun- 
dreds of thousands of miserable Africans, after having been kidnapped 
by avarice and cruelty, or taken captive in war, kindled by the same 
insatiable spirit and torn forever from their parents, husbands, wives, 
and children, were transported across the Atlantic, to bondage and 
misery, interminable but by death." In these floating dungeons, 
one-fourth, one-third, or one-half of the unhappy victims to this in- 
fernal avarice, perished under the pressure of chains, or rotted in the 
pestilential steams, embosoming as a vapor bath the niches in which 
they were manacled. This work of death has been carried on, also, 
a century and a half. What must have been the waste of mankind 
which it has accompUshed ! These houses, the pubhc edifices, nay, 
the temples, devoted to the worship of the eternal God, with all their 
splendor, were built of human bones, and cemented with human blood. 
Else, Sodom and Gomorrah, and whiten by the side of men, baptized 

1 The Southern planter who receives slaves from his parent by inheritance, certainly 
deserves no censure lor holding them. He has no agency in procuring them ; and the 
law does not permit him to set them free. If he treats them with humaniry, and faith- 
fully endeavors to Christianize them, he fulfils his duty, so long as his present situation 
continues. 



468 APPENDIX. 

"in the name of the FATnEK, and of the Son, and of the Holt 
Ghost." 

Are you at a loss, sir, concerning the justice of this representation? 
The records of your own Parhament will furnish you with abundant 
and terrible evidence. Look at the report of the Committee of the 
House of Commons. Look at the account written by the excellent 
Clarhson. Look at the speeches of Mr. Wilberforce, the glory of 
your Parliament, and of your country. Eead the speech which he 
delivered April 2, 1792. You will there read, '•'■Europeans came on 
the coast of Africa.^ and hovered like vultures, and like vultures lived 
on blood. They ensnared at times, and, at times, by force, took away 
the natives and sold them for slaves." Read the examples of villany 
recited by him on this occasion, too long to be quoted by me, and too 
dreadful to admit of a comment. As these will tell you, that of six 
hundred and fifty slaves, on board one ship in the year 1788, one 
hundred and fifty-five died ; of four hundred and five in another, two 
hundred died; of four hundred and two in another, seventy-three 
died. 

From all these sources, learn, also, the immense extent of this foul 
business ; the amazing numbers of unhappy wretches who perished in 
it ; the amazing numbers who lived, only to be made miserable ; the 
portentous iniquity with which it was carried on ; and the vast dilfi- 
culty with which it was broken up. You probably were present, as 
a member of your Parliament, during most, if not the whole, of the 
long struggle made by many of your nobles of high rank ; by your 
enlightened statesmen, and by a numerous train of your gentlemen ; 
not the fox-hunters mentioned above, but men of education, of en- 
lightened and superior minds, and possessed of an honorable character 
among their countrymen ; against the glorious effort made by Mr. 
Wilberforce and his coadjutors to terminate this demoniacal traflic. 

But, sir, in your zeal to heap scandal upon the Americans, you 
appear to have forgotten that you have colonies of your own ; and 
that in these colonies slavery exists in forms and degrees incomparably 
more horrid than in the Southern American States. You have for- 
gotten that the enormous crimes perpetrated in this system, are com- 
mitted by native Britons, under your own eye, and beneath the con- 
trol of yom* own Parliament. I shall take the liberty to refresh your 
memory concerning this subject. 

" To the disgrace of Great Britain and her colonies," says the 
Christian Observer for July, 1811, '•'■the British slave-code is more 
severe in its provisions than, perhaps, any other. Compared with it, 



APPENDIX. 469 

the code promulgated ly the Spanish Government is freedom 
itself:' 

"Will you please, sir, to cast your eye upon the fifth report of the 
Directors of the African Institution, read to the subscribers, March 
27, 1811 ? You wiU there find, substantiated by evidence, which pre- 
cludes all doubt concerning the facts, that a Mr. Huggins, a distin- 
guished planter in Nevis, " went, January 23, 1810, attended by two 
of his sons, on horseback, with upwards of twenty slaves, men and 
women, in the custody of drivers, tlu-ough the streets of Charlestown, 
to the market-place, and there proceeded to indulge his cruelty to the 
utmost, during more than two hours in the face of day, and in the 
sight and hearing, not only of free persons, but of magistrates, who 
• offered him no interruption." 

To one negro man he gave, by the hands of expert drivers, lashes 

no less than 365 

To a second - 115 

To a third 165 

To a fourth . 252 

To a fifth 212 

To a sixth .181 

To a seventh 187 

To a woman 1^0 

To a second 58 

To a third 97 

To a fourth . . . . . . . 212 

To a fifth . . 291 

To a sixth 83 

To a seventh 89 

The number of victims thus specified was fourteen. The seven 
men received 1,447 lashes; or 211 each at an average. The seven 
women received 940, or 134 each. All these were inflicted with a 
cart whip. The whole number of lashes was 2,417; inflicted by 
expert drivers, within the compass of somewhat more than two hours ; 
at the command, and under the eye of this devU in human shape, and 
of his two sons, whom he brought to be witnesses of their father's 
character. Even this is not all, "for he administered," says the Re- 
port, " to various other women and men various other cruel measures 
of the same punishment, at the same time." One of these miserable 
sufferers died soon after of this merciless treatment. Nor was this all. 



470 APPENDIX, 

There were, at this time, seven magistrates in Charlestown. Two of 
them, the Eev. William Green and the Eev. Samuel Lyons^ each hold- 
ing two livings in the island, were within hearing of the lash, and 
must have known of the cruel and illegal cause, yet did not interpose. 
The same was true of Br. Cassin^ a surgeon in that island, who was 
present at a pari of this scene, and, after having counted 236 lashes 
given to one negro, coolly said he thought it was enough. Another 
magistrate, Mr. Edicard Huggins, Jr., looked on the greater part of 
the time. 

If you will read a little farther, you will iind that Mr. Huggins, 
the master, was acquitted by a jury, although the facts were proved 
beyond a doubt, so as not to be disputed, and although the slaves had 
been guilty of no offence of any importance. In addition to this, the 
printer of the Gazette^ in St. Christopher'' s, was prosecuted by him 
for inserting in his paper the minutes concerning the subject, sent to 
him by order of the Assembly ; was found guilty of publishing a libel 
issued by the House of the Assembly oi Nevis, and was sentenced to a 
month's imprisonment, and to find bail to keep the peace for three 
years. 

In the same Report you wiU find an account of a man, that is a 
human body animated by a demon — a planter of Tortola, named 
Hodge. This infernal agent whipped twelve of his slaves so, that they 
died. liown the throats of two females he poured a quantity of boil- 
ing water. A child he ordered to be dipped in a copper of boiling 
liquor. Frequently he caused the children on his estate to be taken 
up by the heels and dipped into tubs of water with their heads down- 
wards, and kept there untU they were stifled, then to be taken out, 
and suffered to recover and breathe, when they were again treated in 
the same manner, and so repeatedly, untU they have been seen to 
stagger and fall. On this he has ordered them to be taken up and 
suspended to a tree by their hands tied together, and in this situation 
cart-whipped. Among others, a mulatto child, reputed his oion, named 
Bella, was repeatedly whipped by his order, and he was also seen re- 
peatedly to strike the chUd with a stick on the head, so as to break 
her head. 

I presume, sir, you are tired of this tale. So am I. I will only 
add, that, to the unspeakable joy of every honest man who has heard, 
or who ever will hear of it, this wretch, after many obstacles had been 
thrown in the way of justice, was at last convicted and hanged. 
Amen, and amen. 

I hope, sir, we shall never more hear any comparison made 5e- 



APPENDIX. 4:T1 

ticeen your slaveliolders and ours. [Compare the relation of Appen- 
dix I. with this account of slavery in the British West Indies.] 



ni. 

COJNBIONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

In March, 1836. 
The Joint Special Committee, to whom was referred so much of 
the Governor's Message as relates to the Abolition of Slavery, together 
with certain documents upon the same subject, communicated to the 
Executive by the several Legislatures of Yii-ginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, transmitted by his Excellency 
to the Legislature, and hereunto annexed, have considered the same, 
and ask leave, respectfully, to submit the following 

REPORT: 

Your committee have devoted to this momentous subject the deep 
and serious attention which its merits obviously demand. The intense 
interest which the question is exciting throughout the whole country ; 
the requirement of our great national compact, enjoining respect for 
the legislative proceedings of other States ; the common bonds of sym- 
pathy, interest, and brotherhood, which connect the various sections 
of the Union, coidd none of them fail of due weight in our minds. 
But yom* committee find enough in the earnest and united appeals of 
the several legislatures above named, to induce them to meet the whole 
question promptly and fairly, and to respond in the most explicit man- 
ner to the strong demands which they make upon the justice and 
honor of the Commonwealth. 

Your committee feel themselves called upon entirely to disclaim the 
opinion, if it anywhere prevails, that the consideration of this matter 
is to be avoided by them in consequence of its exciting nature. They 
feel that the time has arrived for its consideration ; that it cannot and 
ought not to be avoided ; that it ought to be met at its outset by all 
the powers of manly and intelligent minds ; and that every day's de- 
lay only hastens the progress of those tremendous consequences, which 



472 APPENDIX. 

it is tlie duty of every good citizen to deprecate, and by every lionest 
means in his power to endeavor to avert. 

The language of the various documents in the possession of the 
committee is sucli as needs 'no comment to vouch for its sincerity. 
The citizens of the slaveholding States-evidently consider it the most 
important political question which could be presented to their minds. 
They believe, and state, -that the tendency of the proceedings of cer- 
tain abolitionists and abolition societies, in the Northern States; is to 
unsettle the character of their slave population, and to prepare the 
way for all the horrors of a servile insurrection. In case of such an 
event, however the master might be able eventually to overpower the 
slave, it is certain that it could not be effected without the great pe- 
cuniary loss and ruin of rnany ; without an immense sacrifice of their 
own lives, and of the lives of those most dear to them ; without the 
frequent commission of the worst crimes which fill up the black cata- 
logue of human enormities. The mind revolts at once from such a 
spectacle. It is difiicult to conceive how a humane man can regard 
an event like this as possible without the profoundest sentiments of 
unmingled horror. It is not, perhaps, material to the question, 
whether the apprehension be well or ill founded ; or whether the con- 
tingency be near or remote. It is sufficient that the slaveholding States 
(infinitely the best judges in the case) look upon it in this light, and 
call upon us by every motive which ought to mfluence our conduct, to 
afford them such relief as it is in our power to offer. 

The question which first presents itself, as to the right of the non- 
slaveholding States to interfere at aU in the existing relations between 
master and slave, is a point so well understood, that it is hoped no 
argument need be submitted to the Legislature upon this part of the 
subject. Whatever emotions such, a view may excite in the mind of 
the philanthropist, the right of the master to the slave is as undoubted 
as the right to any other property. It is recognized by the well-un- 
derstood admissions of the Constitution. It is recognized by the laws 
of the land, and the tribunals of justice ; and any attempt, whether 
direct or indirect, to deprive the slaveholder of this property, as of 
any other, is a violation of the fixed laws of social policy, as well as 
of the ofdinary rules of moral obligation. If slavery be an evil, the 
slaveholder declares to us that it is no evil of his own creating, but 
that he is able and willing to endure the burden, and neither seeks 
nor desires any intervention of ours. If it be a sin, he is equally 
ready to incur the entire responsibility, and wiU not submit to our 
interference, because it can bring nothing to him and his but disaster 



APPENDIX. 473 

and ruin. Above all, his argument (and it would seem to be unan- 
swerable), is that the property is his own ; and that no man or body 
of men can impair its security without doing him the deepest injustice 
and wrong. One would think this might be sufficient to satisfy the 
most ardent friend of abolition in the world. 

The abolitionist, however, alleges, on the other hand, that his mo- 
tives are entirely misapprehended, and that it is no part of his desire 
or intention to produce those terrible results which are the imputed 
consequences of his conduct. He states it to be his wish not to oper- 
ate on the feelings of the slave, but to affect the mind of the master 
by arguments and appeals, addressed to his moral and religious sensi- 
bilities. If such be the case, 'it would seem that the means employed 
are singularly inappropriate to the proposed end. The argument, 
however, at best, is entirely fallacious in its nature, although if, as it 
were charitable to hope, it deceives the abolitionist himself, it can 
surely deceive no one else. It is too plain to be denied, that the kind 
of publication^ which have issued from the abolition press must 
either directly or indirectly operate upon the slave himself; that their 
only effect can be to suggest to him, that his position in society is not 
only different from his deserts, but that his detention in that state is 
contradictory of his natural rights, and sinful in the sight of heaven. 

It is easy to foresee the consequences of such impressions fixed in 
the mind of the slave ; and equally easy to see that no other possible 
consequences can result from the efforts of the abolitionist. The idea 
of thus affecting the mind of the master, so as in any way to promote 
the emancipation of the slave, would seem to your committee almost 
too unreasonable to be very seriously entertained. Apart from the 
consideration that such a supposition necessarily involves the sacrifice 
of his sources of wealth, often of his means of living, and, as would 
be, no doubt, frequently the case, the reduction of himself and liis 
fiimily to want, and perhaps beggary ; the slaveholder avows, in the 
most explicit language, that he will not for a moment listen to any 
such proposition ; and that he cannot view it in any other light than 
that of the deepest injury which could be infiicted. There is no 
doubt of his right to make such an avowal. There is no doubt that 
the proposal to him to part with his property upon the terms sug- 
gested, is one to which he will never consent. It were unreasonable 
to expect it. No history exhibits any such instance. No deduction 
from any of the known principles of human conduct can show with 
ordinary plausibility that it might be anticipated. So far from having 
the least influence to convince the slaveholder that domestic slavery 



474 APPENDIX. 

is a sin to be immediately expiated, the arguments of the abolitionist 
only irritate whatever is most excitable and vehement in his nature, 
and lead him, rather than submit to their reiteration, to look with 
calmness upon a crisis which would disturb and convulse all the ele- 
ments of our social organization, and would totally dissolve all those 
countless ties which God and nature constituted; which were ce- 
mented by the blood of a united ancestry, shed- upon the field, and 
which should have become more closely woven by the efibrts of wis- 
dom and experience through the lapse of many succeeding years. 

The question presented to us is obviously, therefore, one of im- 
mense moment, and it is our duty to consider what measures it may 
be proper for us to adopt, upon a reasonable and dispassionate view 
of the whole subject. 

The Legislatures of the five States which have transmitted to us 
the documents above referred to, recommend the immediate use of 
such means as will eflfectually suppress and prevent the formation of 
abolition societies, and the enactment of such penal statutes as will 
detei-, or suitably punish, those who print, publish, or distribute the 
various productions of the abolition press. It is for us to determine 
how far it is safe or proper for us to proceed in compliance with this 
request. 

The liberty of the press is declared, by the Constitution of this 
Commonwealth, to be essential to public freedom, and, even if it were 
possible, it would be a matter of very grave deliberation whether it 
were desirable to restrain or control it by any express statutory limit- 
ation. The consequences of such legislation, in its application to 
other contingencies, are such as cannot be altogether and fully antici- 
pated. It is enough, in the opinion of your committee, that the pre- 
cedent seems of dangerous tendency ; and not the less to be avoided 
because its probable results are, to a certain extent, indeterminate. 
It is well understood, that the licentious use either of the press or the 
tongue, renders the party amenable to the common law jurisdiction 
of the coui'ts of justice; and your committee are of opinion, that this 
jurisdiction is amply sufiicient to provide for all circumstances which 
can arise in this Commonwealtli. Besides, there is a powerful influence 
already at work amongst us, stronger than any law — the force of 
public sentiment, directed by the best intelligence, and sustained by 
the highest character, which sympathizes with our southern broth- 
er, as well as with his slave, and which looks indignantly upon every 
movement calculated to disturb him in the possession of his just 
rights, or to endanger the peace and secui'ity of his domestic or social 



APPENDIX. 475 

relations. And your committee believe that an unsound and intem- 
perate enthusiasm is best met by such influences. They believe that 
the experience of society waiTants them in this conclusion ; that pas- 
sions have been excited, and powers concentrated, in resistance to the 
enactments of a positive statute, which might have slept in the absence 
of its provisions ; that the wildest extravagances have sometimes tri- 
umphed against the execution of an untimely law, which, without 
that law, would have weakened and dissipated themselves by their 
own fruitless struggles ; and that nothing, which is not founded upon 
the .eternal principles of truth and justice, can ever long prevail agaiust 
the silent but irresistible force of public disapprobation. 

The abolitionist, indeed, as might be expected, not only denies 
altogether the propriety of enacting penal laws upon this subject, but 
contends that the expression of any legislative opinion, against what 
he considers his right of free discussion, would contravene those well- 
known principles of irablic liberty upon which he justifies his own 
motives and conduct. 

Your committee differ entirely from this doctrine. . It might, per- 
haps, seem even a little inconsistent with liberal dealing, for the anti- 
slavery societies to claim for themselves the privilege of unlimited 
discussion, and the free expression of whatever opinion, and to deny 
to the Legislatm-e the right of publishing to the good people of the 
Commonwealth its own deliberate conclusions upon this or any other 
subject. Indeed, a recurrence to the fundamental principles of the 
Constitution will show at once that the power of making laws is no 
more clearly defined, than the duty of the Legislature, from time to 
time, to afford the people the aid of its advisement and direction upon 
matters of public moment. Especially if the weight of its influence be 
requisite in order to restrain licentiousness, and to maintain the public 
peace and order, no duty, in the opinion of your committee, could be 
more plain. The right of free discussion^ 'which, some say may bg 
infringed by any legislative action, is vmdoubtedly a most sacred right, 
and most inestimable privilege. But, as it is understood by extrava- 
gant men in the discussion of many exciting subjects, it would prove 
one of the deepest curses that could possibly befall any country. The 
truth is, that the ualimited exercise even of legal rights may be not 
only inexpedient, but improper in the extreme. For all men uni- 
formly to insist upon claiming all which might belong to them would 
not only constantly embitter all social relations, but would disturb 
and overturn all civil society. The legal power may often be un- 
questioned where the moral obligation expressly contradicts it. The 



4:76 APPENDIX. 

apostle himself instructs our weakness upon this point, where he de- 
clares many things inexpedient whicJi are nevertheless lawful. And, 
indeed, whoever has reflected much upon the principles which connect 
and harmonize society, cannot hut have perceived, that, without the 
constant recognition of this rule, no political organization could exist 
for a single day. Indeed, it is seen, that the discussion of this very 
question, as it is discussed by the abolition agents, has been, in the first 
place, to defeat the very object proposed, by riveting the chain more 
strongly to the neck of the slave ; and next, to rouse in the mind of the 
master the warmest and most determined spirit of resistance to w.hat 
he accounts an invasion of his rights. 

Indeed, the liberty of free discussion, to the extent claimed by some 
descrij)tions of people, would, in the opinion of your committee, be 
absolutely destructive to every domestic tie, and entirely subversive 
of the most fundamental principles of all civil society. 

The main argument, however, relied on by the abolitionist, when- 
ever the consequences of his conduct are laid before him, is, that '' we 
must discharge our duty, and leave the event." The rule is acknowl- 
edged to be wholesome ; but its application to the case is unequivocally 
denied. There can be no doubt that whenever a plain line of duty is 
set before an accountable being, he is bound to pursue it, regardless 
of ])ersonal inconveniences or dangers. But the rule will be found, in 
its application to the business of life, subject to many exceptions and 
many limitations. Besides, it can in no case be assumed as of general 
obligation, except where the point of duty is well defined and un- 
questionable. Wherever the question may admit of doubt, the obliga- 
tion becomes weakened, and sometimes wholly inoperative. Espe- 
cially in those questions often occurring, where men entertain great 
and irreconcilable differences of opinion, to pursue a course of conduct 
supposed to be abstractly right, but inevitably productive of imme- 
diate evil consequences, is not only out of the line of duty, but incon- 
sistent with either human or divine legislation. 

It is upon the constant and daily recognition of this principle, that 
all human institutions depend for their preservation. Upon any other 
theory, pursued to its legitimate results, the whole world would be 
involved in a state of indiscriminate and inextricable confusion. 
Religion, as well as the soundest deductions of mere human reason, 
forbids us to " do evil, in order that good may come." 

A mistaken view of the jiursuit of duty, has often been productive 
of civil discord ; has often kindled the fires of martyrdom ; has often 
set the world in arms; and it may be fairly concluded, that he is an 



APPENDIX. 477 

unsafe theorist, who forgets that wisdom and prudencs are the very 
first elements of moral obligation. 

The two other arguments ciiieflT relied upon, seem to be, in the 
first place, that the most unlimited discussion is permitted upon other 
questions of jiuMic interest^ and the temperance cause is the instance 
particularly adduced; and next, that in the earlier days of the repub- 
lic the leading men of the South and elseichere — Jefferson^ Madison, 
Jay, Franhlin, and many others — not only spoTce, but wrote upon thid 
subject in the freest and most open manner. Your committee, how- 
ever, are unable to perceive the justice of the parallel between this 
question and the temperance reformation. In the one instance the 
matter is of the most general interest possible, and of the most direct 
and positive application to every portion of the Union; in the other, 
the interest of the Northern man is, at best, of an entirely indirect and 
incidental character; and, upon a strict construction, a matter in 
which he has no concern whatever. "With regard to the other argu- 
ment, your committee can only say, that these very gentlemen, with 
their colleagues, settled the question of slavery as it now exists, and 
imposed it upon their descendants, whether it be a burden or a sin ; 
that their discussion of it was at a time when no immediate danger 
was anticipated, and when no irritated feelings had been excited upon 
the subject; that all their acknowledged wisdom could devise no 
remedy for the evil ; that the abolitionist cannot now propose, does 
not ofier to propose, any feasible plan of emancipation ; that no South- 
ern man now expresses any opinions like those alluded to ; and that 
your committee believe it to be the unquestionable duty of those who 
feel most deeply upon this topic, to leave the whole affair in the keep- 
ing of a merciful Providence, who will not require of any man or 
nation an unreasonable account. 

It is upon these views that your committee wish to express their 
most mature and deliberate convictions as to this great question. 
They feel that the conduct of the abolitionist is not only wrong in 
policy, but erroneous in morals. However sincere an enthusiast may 
be, and there are, no doubt, many degrees of sincerity among this 
body, his zeal cannot excuse him from the weight of moral account- 
abihty. The evil consequences which have ah-eady attended their 
efforts, and those infinitely more evil likely to ensue, unless they 
should be in some way arrested in their career, must be answered, at 
■ some period, at a higher tribunal than even public opinion. 

Your committee have no right to prejudge this cause ; or to an- 
ticipate how strict an account will be required of the grounds of 



478 ■ APPENDIX. 

motives, and how far an honest investigation of their reasonableness, 
as well as their sincerity, will be necessary, in order to palliate the ex- 
travagances of human actions. It is* the business of your committee 
to apply to the transactions of life the ordinary causes from which 
they result ; and, so far as may be in their power, to recommend those 
measures which may seem best adapted to stay the progress of evU. 
They feel that there is a deep responsibility resting upon them, and 
while they cannot avoid their duty, they have no desire to shrink 
from its discharge. 

"Whatever, indeed, may be the action of the Legislature upon this 
subject, your committee are determined to fulfil their duty to the State 
and to our common country, in the most firm and faithful manner. 
In remembering that they are men of Massachusetts, they are incapa- 
ble of meanly forgetting that they are also Americans. However 
they may regret the condition of slavery everywhere in the world, 
they have no sympathy with that diseased sensibility which, in its 
commiseration for the slave, wilfully shuts its eyes against the fatal 
consequences of conduct which is likely to involve both master and 
slave in one common destruction. They have no sympathy with that 
false benevolence, which, in order to Hberate the slave, is willing to 
destroy the hope of liberty itself, by jdunging the country in all the 
horrors of civil war, with bloodshed, anarchy, and despotism, the sure 
attendants in its train. In a word, they cannot but deem that philan- 
thropy not only officious, but extravagant and inexcusable, which wiU 
intermeddle in the proper and peculiar affairs of others, not only 
against their will, but to their manifest and inevitable detriment. To 
those who are amenable to no other argument, there is. an appeal 
which this Legislatm-e cannot safely resist. One of its first duties here, 
is solemnly to swear that it will support the Constitution of the United 
States ; and your committee beg gentlemen to consider how they will 
answer the observation of that oath, by promoting or countenancing 
those wild schemes, which cannot but deprive their brother of the 
guaranty which that Constitution does provide for his security in the 
possession of his property and all its legal rights. 

The appeal which is addressed to us by our sister States is indeed 
of the most solemn and atfecting character. Its language is often 
ardent ; in the opinion of some it may be reprehensible. But yom* 
committee believe that the character of the good people of this com- 
monwealth is somewhat too well understood ; that its spirit and honor 
are too well known, to allow the Legislatures of other States to expect 
to extort any thing from us which does not address itself to our 



APPENDIX. 479 

reasonable convictions. They appeal to our justice as men ; to our 
sympathies as brethren ; to our patriotism as citizens; to the memory 
of the common perils and triumphs of our ancestors and theirs ; to all 
the better emotions of our nature ; to our respect for the Constitution ; 
to our regard for the laws; to our hope for the security of all those 
blessings which the Union, and that only, can preserve to us. 

In view of these motives, therefore, which surely cannot be disre- 
garded, and for the reasons above set forth, and after the most mature 
deliberation, your committee have determined to recommend, and do 
recommend, the following preamble and resolves to the acceptance 
of the Legislature : 



COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

In the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six. 

Wliereas, the Legislatures of our sister States of Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, have transmitted to 
the Legislature of this Commonwealth, certain memorials and resolu- 
tions relating to the subject of domestic slavery within their limits ; 
which state that the proceedings of certain persons therein styled 
abohtionists, are dangerous to the public peace, are calculated to ex- 
cite the slave to insurrection and revolt, and to render not only the 
property, but the lives of our Southern brethren insecure ; and, 
wJiereas, they call upon us, by the most interesting and solemn mo- 
tives, to aid them in arresting the progress of this evil ; and, whereas, 
in our opinion, the institution of domestic slavery is one in which, as 
it is settled by the Constitution of these United States, we have no title 
to interfere, especially without the consent of those whose interests 
may be most dearly affected by such a course ; and, tchereas, it is our 
highest political duty to endeavor to maintain the most friendly and 
intimate relations with all the States of this great and happy Union, 
and to discountenance every thing which may tend to its disturbance 
and dissolution ; therefore. 

Be it resolved, hy the Senate and House of Eepresentatives, in 
General Court assembled, and iy the authority of the same, That this 
Legislature, regarding the Constitution of these United States as the 
most sacred and inestimable pohtical inheritance which could have 
been transmitted to us by our ancestors, looks indignantly upon every 
thing calculated to impair its permanency ; and that we deem it our high 
duty to maintain the Union, which it secures, at every hazard, and by 



4:80 APPENDIX. 

every sacrifice, not inconsistent with our known duties as men, 
citizens, and Christians. 

liesohed, That tliis Legislature distinctly disavows any right what- 
ever in itself, or in the citizens of this Commonwealth, to interfere 
in the institution of domestic slavery in the Southern States ; it having 
existed therein hefore the establishment of the Constitution ; it having 
been recognized by that instrument ; and it being strictly within their 
own keeping. 

Hesoked, That this Legislature, regarding the agitation of the ques- 
tion of domestic slavery as having already interrupted the friendly 
relations which ought to exist between the several States of this 
Union, and as tending permanently to injure, if not altogether to 
subvert the principles of the Union itself ; and believing that the good 
expected by those who excite its discussion in the non-slaveholding 
States, is, under the circumstances of the case, altogether visionary, 
while the immediate and future evil is great and certain : — does 
hereby express its entire disapprobation of the doctrines upon this 
subject avowed, and the general measures pursued by such as agitate 
the question; and does earnestly recommend to them carefully to 
abstain from all such discussion, and all such measures as may disturb 
and irritate the public mind. 

Hesolved, That this Legislature entirely disapproves of all those 
tumultuous and riotous proceedings everywhere, which have arisen 
from the agitation of this question ; and believing that the good citi- 
zens of this Commonwealth entertain a sacred regard for the author- 
ity of the laws, and for the preservation of the public peace, this Leg- 
islature earnestly recommends and demands, that by their influence 
and example, and by their qaiet and peaceable demeanor, they will 
do all in their power to. prevent the recurrence of such scenes ; and it 
enjoins upon all magistrates and civil ofBcers the firm and faithful 
discharge of the duties entrusted to them, to maintain order and de- 
corum, and to uphold the dignity of the Commonwealth. 

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to trans- 
mit copies of this report and these resolves, to the Executive of each 
of those States which have addressed us upon the subject. 
By order of the Committee, 
(Signed) GEOKGE LUNT. 



APPENDIX. 481 



IV. 



The resolutions copied below are those referred to in the text (p. 115). 
A note to the Abridgment of Debates (vol. xiii., p. 568), published in 
1860, says: "These resolutions, and the debate to which they gave 
rise, and the modifications which they underwent, and the final vote 
upon them, contribute the most important proceeding on the subject 
of slavery which has ever taken place ui Congress. They were framed 
to declare the whole power of Congress upon the subject, and were 
presented for a "test vote," and as the future "platform" and "per- 
manent settlement of the law on the slavery question." They passed 
the Senate ia the following terms by a vote of yeas 35 to nays 9 : 

1. liesohed, That in the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the 
States adopting the same acted severally as fi*ee, independent, and 
sovereign States ; and that each for itself by its own voluntary assent, 
entered the Union with the view to its increased security against all 
dangers, domestic as well as foreign, and the more perfect and seciu-e 
enjoyment of its advantages, national, political, and social. 

2. liesohed, That in delegating a portion of their powers to be 
exercised by the Federal Government, the States retained, severally, 
the exclusive and sole right over theu* own domestic institutions and 
police, to the full extent to which those powers were not thus dele- 
gated, and are alone responsible for them ; and that any intermeddling 
of any one or more States, or a combination of their citizens, with the 
domestic institutions and police of the others, on any ground, politi- 
cal, moral, or rehgious, or under any pretext whatever, with the view 
to their alteration or subversion, is not warranted by the Constitu- 
tion, tending to endanger the domestic peace and tranquillity of the 
States interfered with, subversive of the objects for which the Consti- 
tution was formed, and by necessary consequence tending to weaken 
and destroy the Union itself. 

3. liesohed, That this Government was instituted and adopted by 
the several States of this Union as a common agent, in order to carry 
into effect the powers which they had delegated by the Constitution 
for then- mutual security and prosperity ; and that in fulfilment of this 
high and sacred trust, this Government is bound so to exercise its 
powers, as not to interfere with the stability and security of the do- 
mestic institutions of the States that compose the Union ; and that it 
is the solemn duty of the Government to resist, to the extent of its 

21 



482 APPENDIX. 

constitutional jiower, all attempts by one portion of the Union to use 
it as an instrument to attack the domestic institutions of another, or 
to weaken or destroy such institutions. 

4. Resolved, That domestic slavery, as it exists in the Southern 
and "Western States of this Union, composes an important part of their 
domestic institutions, inherited from theu' ancestors, and existing at 
the adoption of the Constitution, by which it is recognized as consti- 
tuting an important element in the apportionment of powers among 
the States ; and that no change of opinion or feeling on the part of 
the other States of the Union in relation to it, can justify them or 
their citizens in open and systematic attacks thereon with a view to 
its overthrow, and that all such attacks are in manifest violation of 
the mutual and solemn pledge to protect and defend each other, given 
by the States respectively, on entering into the constitutional compact 
whicli formed the Union, and as such are a manifest breach of faith, 
and a violation of the most solemn obligations. 

5. Eesolved, That the interference by the citizens of any of the 
States, with the view to the abolition of slavery in this District, is 
endangering the rights and security of the people of the District, and 
that every act or measure of Congress designed to abolish slavery in 
this District would be a violation of the faith implied in the cessions 
by the States of Virginia and Maryland, and just cause of alarm to 
the people of the slaveholding States, and have a direct and inevitable 
tendency to distract and endanger the Union ; and 

Resolved, That any attempt of Congress to abolish slavery in 
any Territory of the United States in which it exists, would create 
serious alarm and just apprehension in the States sustaining that do- 
mestic institution; would be a violation of good faith towards the 
inhabitants of any such Territory who have been permitted to settle 
with and hold slaves therein, because the people of any such Territory 
have not asked for the abolition of slavery therein, and because when 
any such Territory shall be admitted into the Union as a State, the 
people thereof will be entitled to decide that question exclusively for 
themselves. 

Resolutions could scarcely have been contrived more amply or more 
particularly covering every point of contention between the North 
and the South than these ; namely, slavery in the States, slavery in 
the District, and slavery in the Territories — the continuance of the 
latter dependent upon the final action of the people of the Territories. 
Yet, while they doubtless had the effect to compose the public mind 



APPENDIX. 483 

ill the latter quarter, they were altogether disregarded by the Liberty 
party, and scarcely attracted the attention of the rest of the people, 
in the former. 

These resolutions of the Senate were not acted upon by the House ; 
but soon after Congress met, at its following session, Mr. Atherton, of 
New Hampshire, introduced a series of resolutions (December 11th, 
1838), covering the same ground, in regard to slavery in the States, 
the District, and the territories. The final resolution provided, that 
" every petition, memorial, resolution, j^roposition, or paper, touching 
or relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to slavery, as afore- 
said, or the abolition thereof, shall, on the presentation thereof, with- 
out any further action thereon, be laid on the table, without being de- 
bated, printed, or referred." These resolutions were passed, in gen- 
eral, with very slight opposition ; the most decisive have been evinced 
towards the tinal one which included the above extract. On this, the 
vote stood 126 yeas to 73 nays, or nearly a majority of two-thirds in 
its favor. 



V. 

It was in the year 1855, in the demoralized condition of the once 
[)0werful Whig organization, as described in the text, that the Eepub- 
lican, or "geographical " party, began distinctly to form itself, princi- 
pally under the auspices of well-known political managei's in the State 
of Xew York. But, in that State, the efforts of the antislavery lead- 
ers among the "Whigs to transfer their party to the newly formed 
Republican organization encountei'ed a powerful opposition, and it 
was never fully accomplished. A large minority, probably no less 
than one-third of the Whigs of the State, comprising the most thought- 
ful and conservative portion of the party, refused to unite with this 
sectional organization. The result was that at the election of 1855 
the Republican candidates were signally defeated. 

The proposed fusion was resisted by Washington Hunt, Daniel D. 
Barnard, Francis Granger, William Ducr, and many of the most emi- 
nent and honored leaders of the old Whig party who remained faith- 
ful to its constitutional principles. They clearly foresaw the dangers 
which threatened the Union, and boldly denounced the system of sec- 
tional strife and alienation which had been substituted for legitimate 



484 APPEKDIX. 

party action, as the most effective agency for gaining political ascend- 
ency in tlie General Government. A short time before the assem- 
bling of the last Whig State Convention of New York, in 1855, which 
had been called with the avowed design of disbanding the party, and 
forming an amalgamation with the Eepublicans, Governor Hunt 
wrote a letter, which was widely published, protesting, with emphatic 
earnestness, against the contemplated aUiance, and predicting with 
remarkable accuracy, the fatal consequences which ultimately resulted 
from the movement. After urging many conclusive objections against 
sectional combinations, and repeating the warnings of "Washington 
against "parties founded on geographical discriminations," he em- 
ployed the following language: 

"Beheving that a sectional combination of this kind is fraught 
with danger and mischief, it does not accord with my views of 
duty to enlist under its banner. In Federal politics I am not pre- 
pared to serve in any party which does not identify itself with the 
whole country, by presenting broad national principles and a system 
of measures upon which good men in both sections, and -in all the 
States from Maine to California, can unite in friendly cooperation. If 
a Northern antislavery party is desirable, it must be desired that all 
the people of the free States should enter into it. The very proposi- 
tion implies that we are to be met by the people of the Southern 
States in solid array. We cannot close our eyes to the practical ten- 
dencies of such a conflict. Its effect must be to exasperate one part 
of the nation towards the other part, and to weaken, if not to banish 
those sentiments of friendship and brotherhood which gave bu'th to 
the Constitution. In such a warfare both sections will be roused to 
fierce resentment by mutual insult and denunciation, vmtU either side 
Ti-ill see on the other aliens and enemies, instead of friends and fellow- 
citizens ; and, in a word, we shall cease to be one people. 

"It is contended thtrt the Union is too strong, if not too sacred, to 
be endangered by angry contention between the North and the South. 
This may be true while the contest is confined to a bandjof sectional 
gladiators ; but how long the Federal compact would survive a partisan 
struggle between the people of the free- States and the people of the 
slave States, or to what degree mutual wrath and vengeance may be 
indulged with safety, are problems upon which I choose not to specu- 
late. But I will not hesitate to express my conviction, that if the 
time shall ever come when fraternal kindness and sympathy between 
the States shall be extinguished in the popular breast, and when the 
sectional animosity which is avowed in some quarters shall become 



APBE^'DIX. 485 

the common sentiment of the American people, the Union will be no 
longer worth preserving. It will no longer be the Union established 
by "Washington and his compatriots on the broad foundation of com- 
mon interests, friendly ties, and national patriotism." 



VI. 

The external aspect of the affair off Charleston which " precipi- 
tated" the war, is as that of a boy "spoiling for a fight," who places 
a chip on the rim of his hat and dares his competitor to knock it off. 
But even if warlike matters had been brought to an issue by the un- 
designed exhibition of the fleet, it would be no more surprising than 
a fact stated by Mr. Kinglake, in his history of the Crimean invasion. 
lie declares that event to have been brought about by means of a 
cogent despatch to Lord Eaglan, drawn up by the Duke of Newcastle, 
who was in favor of war, and read by him at a cabinet-meeting after 
dinner, when a majority of the ministers present had sunk into a pro- 
found sleep ; to which despatch the prime minister and other leading 
members of the cabinet would have urged controlling objections, had 
they remained awake, at a moment so critical. The orders to the 
American fleet may have been issued under somewhat similar circxim- 
stances, since it is well known that the administration at "Washington 
entertained quite discordant opinions in the case in question ; at least, 
up to a very late moment before the event. Indeed, it might weU be 
said of certain members of the administration, as Clarendon remarks 
of Fairfax, Generalissimo of the Parhament forces, under whom Crom- 
well served as Lieutenant-general : " Fairfax wished for nothing that 
Cromwell didj and yet contributed to bring it all to pass." 



I ]sr D E X. 



Adams, C. F., 386, 402. 

Adams, John, 45. 

Adams, John Qumcv, 32, 48, 65, 69, 

105, 113, 129, 130, 136, 137, 141, 

147, 162, 163, 164, 203. 
Advertiser, Boston, 359, 405, 406, 412. 
African slave trade, 32. 
Albany Evening Journal, 212, 397. 
Albany Patriot, 121. 
American Preceptor, 58. 
American Tract Society, 316. 
Ames, Fisher, 32, 33. " 
Anderson, Major, 448. 
Anderson, Mr. 425. 
Andrew, Governor, 252, 338, 340, 

352, 353, 356, 368, 384, 385, 387, 

407, 417. 
Anne, Queen, 118. 
Appleton, Mr., 279. 
Archer, Mr., 156. 
Articles of Confederation, 203. 
Atchison, Mr., 280. 
Atherton, Mr., 309, 482. 
Atlas, Boston, 72, 94, 121, 122, 212. 



B. 



Banks, Mr., 223, 231, 251, 339. 

Barbary Powers, 7. 

Barbour, Mr., 42. 

Barnard. Daniel D., Mr., 483. 

Barry, Mr., 346, 348. 

Bates, Mr., of Mo., 352,449. 

Bates, Mr., of Mass., 129, 130. 

Beach, Mr., 251. 

Beecher, H. W. Rev., 289, 390. 



Bell, Mr., of Teun., 200, 279, 286, 

352, 369, 370, 395. 
Bell, Mr., of Mass., 251. 
Benton, Mr., 112, 114, 194, 196, 197, 

330, 442. 
Berrien, Mr., 150, 179. 
Bigler, Mr., 424. 
Bingham, Governor, 419. 
Birney, Mr., 122, 123. 
Black, Mr., Attorney-General, 397. 
Blair, Mr., P. M. General, 449. 
Blau-, F. P., Mr., 388. 
Boteler, Mr., 398. 
Botts, Mr., 245. 

Boutwell, Mr., 221, 223, 224, 231. 
Breckinridge, Mr. 369, 370, 381. 
Briggs, Governor, 127. 
Bright, John, Mr., 83. 
Brooks, Mr., 232. 
Brown, Mr., of Miss., 317. 
Brown, John, Mr., 252, 312, 327. 
Buchanan, ex-Pres., 251, 266, 300, 

313, 314,315, 394,406, 443. 
Buffalo Convention, 121, 213. 
Bull Run, 455. 
Burke, Edmund, 173. 
Bums, jinthony, 243. 



Calhoun, Mr., 76, 90, 115, 190, 192, 
194, 195, 197, 211, 212, 330. 

Campbell, Mr., of Alabama, 444, 445, 
447. 

Cameron, Mr., 410, 449. 

Carlyle, Mr., 27, 264. 

Carruthers, Mr., 261. 



488 



INDEX. 



Cass, Mr., 150, 160, 161, 163, 285, 
397. 

Chandler, Z., Mr., 420. 

Chase, Mr., 162, 190, 213, 285, 387, 
422, 449, 450. 

Chicago Platform, 356. 

Chinese Empire, 177. 

Choate, Mr., 204, 214, 233, 245, 255, 
2o8, 274, 

Clav, Mr., 23, 42, 46, 47, 83, 90, 102, 
104, 115, 121, 122, 126, 138, 141, 
164, 187, 196, 200, 201, 242, 254, 
277, 323, 333. 

Clayton, John M., Mr., 158, 256, 286. 

Clayton, Thomas, Mr., 158. 

Clark, Mr., 408, 409, 426. 

Clergy, New England, 286 ei seq. 

Clingman, Mr., 138, 279. 

Coalition of Democrats and Freesoilers, 
221 rf seq. 

Cobb, Mr., 48, 279. 

Collamer, Mr., 298,424. 

Colonization Society, 122. 

Commons, House of, motion in, 77. 

Conrad, Mr., 237. 

Conservative Republicans, 355, 398. 

Convention, aboUtion, 116; sectional, 
121, 213 ; Constitutional, 12 rf seq. ; 
of Virginia, 15; of Massachusetts, 
29 ; Hartford, 49 ; Nashville, 197 ; 
Whig, 126,214, (1852,) 239 ; AVhig, 
277, (1856,) 300; Democratic, 
(1852,) 238 ; (1856,) 313, (I860,) 
301, 342 ; Freesoil, (1852,) 240 ; 
Know-Nothing, 258 ; Black-Repub- 
lican, 262; Whig and Democratic, 
308 ; Constitutional Union, 352 ; 
RepubUcan, (I860,) 352, 414 ; South 
Carolina, 390, 391. 

Conventions, 261. 

Corwin, Mr., 399. 

Council, National, 261. 

Courier., Boston, 359, 421. 

Courier., Charleston, 447. 

Court, Supreme, 366. 

Crittenden, Mr., 83, 204, 237, 255, 
333, 400, 403, 408, 409, 415, 423, 
424. 

Crittenden Resolutions, 400, 401. 

Croly, Mr., 286. 

Cromwell, 276. 

Curtis, B. R., Mr., 382. 

Curtis, George Ticknor, Mr., 218. 

Curtis, George W., Mr., 358, 415. 

Gushing, Mr., 270. 



D. 



Dante, 181. 

Davis, Mr., of Miss., 48, 150, 201, 

230, 270, 277, 303, 316, 317, 424, 

426, 446. 
Davis, Mr., of Ky., 48. 
Davis, Mr., of Mass., 183. 
Dayton, Mr., 201, 314. 
Drayton, Mr., 20. 
Democrats and National Republicans, 

70. 
Democrats, Northern, 124. 
Dickinson, Mr., 150, 200, 201, 215. 
Dix, Mr., 150, 179. 
Dixon, Mr., of Conn., 317. 
Dixon, Mr., of Ky., 283. 
Dodge, Mr., 200. 
Doolittle, Mr., 424. 
Douglas, Mr., 142, 201, 278, 279 et 

seq., 285, 286, 301, 303, 306, 342, 

370, 395, 408, 424, 429. 
Dred Scott, 134. 
Dromgoole, Mr., 105, 130. 
Duer, Mr., 360, 483. 
Dwight, Timothy, Rev. Dr., 467. 



E. 



Edwards, Jonathan, Rev. Dr., 7. 

Ellsworth, Mr., 13. 

Emancipator, 121, 122, 139. 

Emerson, Rev. Dr., 94. 

Emigrant Aid Company, 293, 294. 

Envoy, British, 75. 

Episcopal Church, 185. 

Everett, Governor, 100, 104, 106, 237, 

283, 286, 352, 361, 374, 430, 436, 

437. 
Exeter Hall, 91. 



F. 



Faneuil Hall, 72, 186. 

Federalists and Republicans of 1816, 

20, 45, 62. 
Filhnore, ex-President, 204, 212, 215, 

221, 236, 237, 244, 245, 251, 260. 
Fletcher, Richard, Mr., 73. 
Franklm, Dr., 25, 27. 
Frederick II., 36. 

Fremont, Mr., 251, 260-, 264, 314, 377. 
Fugitive Slave Law, 199, 320. 



IXDEX. 



4S9 



G. 



Gardner, Governor, 250, 251, 260. 
Garrison, Mr., 74, 93, 107, 108, 109, 

182. 
Giddings, Mr., 188, 278, 357, 358. 
Goodrich, Mr., 295. 
Gordon, Mr., 251. 
Gorham, Mr., 13. 
Graham, Mr., 48. 
Granger, Francis, Mr., 483. 
Grant, General, 337. 
Great Britain, 44, 265. 
Greelev, Mr., 353, 389. 
Green,' Mr., 295. 
Grimes, Mr., 424. 
Guthrie, Mr., 270. 



H. 



Hale, J. P., Mr., 123, 162, 165, 187, 
190, 200, 201, 213, 240, 264, 341. 

Hall, Mr., 237. 

Hamer, Mr., 105. 

Hamilton, Mr., in Federalist, 19, in 
Elliott's Debates, 12. 

Hamlin, Mr., of Me., 48. 

fiamlin, Mr., of S. C, 137. 

Hardin, Mr., 105. 

Harper's Ferry, 329. 

Harrison, ex-President, 45, 125, 126, 
136. 

Harvard College, 56. 

Haughton, Mr., 212. 

Hayes, Mr., 429. 

Helena, St., 175. 

Helper's Crisis, 324 et seq. 

Henrv, John, Captain, 74. 

Herald, X. Y., 412, 446, 447, 448. 

Hiffher Law, 359, 360. 

Hiiiiard, Mr., 150, 

Historicus, 332. 

Hoar, Mr., 133. 

Holland, Lord, 76, 81. 

Holt, Chief Justice, 19. 

Houston, Mr., 200, 279, 283. 

Howe, Mr., 278. 

Howard, Mr., 346, 348. 

Hunt, cx-Govcrnor, 48, 352, 483. 

Hunter, Mr., 285, 424. 



Indians, 58, 280, 284. 
lutelligeiicer, Atlanta, 457. 



Jackson, ex-President, 65, 70, 98, 104, 

106, 137, 138, 141, 150, 163, 230, 

279, 388, 395. 
Jarvis, Mr., 105. 
Jefferson, ex-President, 11, 17, 21, 

23, 24, 44, 45, 46, 49, 52, 54, 65, 

56, 67, 203. 
Jessup, Judge, 358 
Johnson, President, 48, 279, 399, 401, 

410, 427. 
Johnson, Cost, Mr., 117. 
Jones, Mr., 200. 



K. 



Kansas, 42, 52, 208, 271 d seq. 
Kansas Investigating Committee, 294. 
Kennedv, Mr., 137, 237. 
Kins, Preston, Mr., 48. 
King, Rufus, Mr., 62. 
King, William, Mr., 129. 
Kuow-Nothing, 235, 255. 



Lauderdale, Earl of, 81. 

Leavitt, Joshua, Mr., 121. 

Lecompton Constitution, 301. 

Lee, General, 328, 

Liberator, The, 109, 139. 

Liberty Party, 121, 275. 

Liberia, Republic of, 61, 122. 

Lincohi, ex-President, 162, 301, 805, 
317, 330, 341, 352, 369, 378, 386, 
435, 436, 438, 440, 441, 442, 443, 
448, 449, 450, 455. 

Livingston, Mr., 13. 

Lords, House of, 76. 

Lyell, Sir Charles, 18. 

Lyman, Theodore, Mr., 72. 

M. 

Madison, ex-President, 17, 46, 62, 75. 
Mace, Mr. 295. 
Mann, Horace, Mr., 106. 
Mangum, Mr., 201. 
Mansfield, Chief Justice, 71. 
Marcv, Governor, 99, 104, 270. 
Marshall, Chief Justice, 83. 
Maxtineau, Miss, 107. 



490 



INDEX. 



Massachusetts, 3, 29, 39, 119, 121, 
128, 130, 132, 146, 147, 148, 151, 
152, 155, 157, 219 et seq., 249 et 
seq., 312, 395. 

McCleUan, General, 373, 386, 402, 
461. 

Meacham, Mr., 279. 

Mercantile Library Association, 317. 

Methodist Episcopal Church, 185. 

Mill, Stuart, Mr., 84. 

Mississippi, Commissioner from, 441. 

Missouri Compromise, 19, 53, 54, 206, 
207, 210, 36G. 

Monroe, ex-President, 44, 62, 63, 64, 
65. 

Morgan, Governor, 416. 

Morse, Professor S. B., 80. 

Morton, Governor, 119, 120, 147. 

Morton, Mrs., 59. 

Murray, Hon. Miss, 18. 



N. 



Napoleon, 77. 

Nebraska, 42, 43. 

New England, 11, 19, 44, 46, 47, 56, 

67, 68. 
New York, 10, 140, 215. 
Nicholson, Mr., 400, 405. 
Niles, Mr. 179. 

Nullification in South Carolina, 89. 
Nye, Mr., 415. 



0. 



Ordinance of 1787, 21, 22, 54, 209. 
Ormsby's History of Whig Partv, 45. 
Orr, Mr., 279. 

Otis, Harrison Gray, Mr., 73, 93. 
Owens, Mr., 105. 



Parker, T., Rev., 289. 

Peace Conference, 415 et seq., 450. 

Peace Societv of Mass., 225. 

Pennsylvania, 10, 20, 25, 49, 69, 215. 

Personal Liberty Acts, 220, 382. 

Peter, Hermit, 92. 

Phillips, Wendell, Mr., 109, 182, 413. 

Pickens, Fort, 443. 

Pierce, ex-President, 105, 123, 166, 



236, 267, 209, 270, 280, 300, 310, 

313, 314, 315. 
Pinckney, Mr., 105. 
Pitt, Mr., 77. 
Polk, ex-President, 122, 123, 138, 

144, 149, 163, 242. 
Port Royal, 175. 
Post, Evening, 408. 
Powell, Mr. 899. 
Prescott's Philip IL, 454. 
Preston, Mr., 116, 137. 
Princeton College, 56. 
Pugh, Mr., 404, 426. 



Q. 



Quakers, 25, 33. 

Quincy, Josiah, Mr., 38, 251, 260, 340, 

313. 
Quitman, General, 464. 



R. 



Randolph, Mr., 13, 209. 

Raymond, Mr., 359. 

Republican Journals, Opposition of, 

449. 
Rice, Mr., 424. 
Richardson, Mr., 278. 
R6ckwell, Mr., 251, 260. 
Roebuck, Mr., (M. P.,) 86, 87, 88. 
Roman Catholic Church, 185, 186. 
Rusk, Mr., 279. 
Rutledjrc, Mr., 13. 



S. 



Santa Anna, 144. 

Scott, Sir Walter, 336. 

Scott, General, 166, 168, 236, 245, 
247, 248, 314, 315, 389, 443. 

Seward, Mr., 160, 161, 164, 165, 171, 
190, 195, 200, 201, 213, 285, 286, 
305, 325, 326, 352, 386, 389, 398, 
402, 408, 410, 424, 445, 448, 449, 
450. 

Seward Whigs, 211. 

Shadrack, 227. 

Shaffner, Mr., 464. 

Shaw, Chief Justice, 228, 241, 382. 

Sheffield, voters of, 87. 

Sherman, Mr., 326. 

Shurtz, Carl, Mr., 419. 

Sims, 228. 



INDEX. 



491 



Slade, Mr., 112, 113. 

Smith, Mr., 201, 283; Secretary of In- 
terior, 449. 

Smith, Goldwin, Mr., 83. 

Sojourning Laws in New York and 
Pemisylvaiiia, 215. 

South Carolina, 1, 14, 19, 41, 46, 89, 
106, 146. 

Sprague, Judge, 73, 251. 

Spruance, Mr., 158. 

Stafford House, 91. 

Stanley, Mr., 279. 

Star, Washington, 404. 

Stephens, Mr., 48, 137, 138, 150, 186. 

Story, Mr., Justice, 204. 

Stowe, Mr.^. Beecher, 286. 

Stowell, Lord, 71. 

Stuart, Mr. A. H. H., 255. 

Stuart, Professor, 94, 184. 

Sturgeon, Mr., 200. 

Sumner, Mr., 182, 224, 225, 226, 230, 
232, 249, 285, 288, 414, 417, 455. 

Sumter, Fort, 440, 441, 442, 443 ct 
seq. 



T. 



Taylor, ex-President, 123, 167, 168, 

169, 212. 
Tavlor, Mr., 429. . 
Texas, 116, 123, 141 et seq., 150, 151, 

178. 
Thompson, George, Mr., 71, 73, 74, 78, 

83, 94. 
Times, London, 87. 
Times, Xew York, 359. 
Toombs, Mr., 48, 150, 186, 285, 317, 

424, 426. 
Topeka Constitution, 296, 458. 
Tribune, 353, 358, 359, 359, 383, 407, 

413. 
Turrill, Mr. 105. 
Tyler, ex-President, 126, 136, 141, 

142, 144, 149, 435, 447. 

U. 



Uncle Tom, 60. 
Underwood, Mr. 200. 
Union-savers, 238. 



Van Buren, ex-Presidcnt, 115, 116, 
121, 123, 125, 141, 163, 165. 



Virginia, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, S3, 34, 

89, 130, 192, 440. 
Vernon, Mount, 20. 



W. 

"Wade, Mr., 298, 387, 399. 

Walker, Kobert J., Mr., 296, 303. 

Wales, Mr., 158. 

Walley, Mr., 251. 

Washmgton, 17, 20, 23, 38, 83, 190, 

204, 369, 451. 
Washington, Col., 327. 
Webster, Mr., 83, 102, 121, 126, 176, 

180, 183, 184, 186, 190, 194, 197, 

198, 201, 206, 212, 221, 222, 224, 

233, 234, 237, 244, 245, 254, 274, 

277, 321, 322, 323, 333. 
Weller, Mr., 283. 
Weed, Thurlow, Mr., 212, 388. 
Welles, Mr., Secretary of the Navy, 

449. 
Wesleyan Methodist Communion, 185. 
West India Emancipation, 80. 
Wethered, Mr., 137. 
Whig Party, 366. 
Whigs and Democrats, 48. 
Whigs, Northern, 124. 
White, Mr. 112. 
Wilmot, Mr., 48. 
Wilmot Proviso, 193. 
Wilson, Henry, Mr., 182, 183, 221, 

223, 249,-251, 260, 412, 417. 
Wilson, Mr., of Penn., 13. 
Winthrop, Mr., 48, 137, 221, 224, 

226, 232. 
Woods, Leonard, Rev. Dr., 94. 
World, New York, 400, 404, 405, 

406, 410. 



Ximenes, Cardinal, 454, 456. 



Yale College, 56. 
Yancey, Mr., 304. 
Young America, 378. 

Z. 

ZoUicoffer, Mr., 255. 



^•^^ 



